There’s a lot happening on the beaches in Kitty Hawk these days. Mostly beach nourishment.
They just finished up a stretch of beach around the town’s bathhouse next to the Black Pelican. The beach is wide and the sand spectacularly soft.
All the equipment moved north and now right around Historic Street and north to Wilkins, the next phase is moving along. For anyone who has not seen a beach nourishment project underway, the mount of construction that goes into it is truly surprising.
This morning there were at least three four bulldozers at work on the beach. Three were moving sand that had been pumped from the offshore resource. The other bulldozer was stacking pipes. It’s not clear if that was in preparation for the next phase as everything continues to move north to Southern Shores, or if the pipes are going to be used in Kitty Hawk.
A dredge floats about a quarter mile offshore. If enough sand has been pumped for the current area, it will move north. If not, it’s probably still connected to the pipes and will be pumping sand.
There’s some misconceptions about beach nourishment that seem to keep cropping up.
First of all—although a wider beach with good quality sand is usually the result of a nourishment project, the reason to nourish a beach is to protect property and infrastructure. The wider beach happens to be a byproduct of that, but no has ever ok’ed a nourishment project for the purpose of improving a beach.
A significant amount of the sand on the beach is expected to go back to the ocean. In doing so, it forms a sandbar just offshore offering the first line of defense as storm waves roll to the shore.
About every five years, beaches require renourishment if the property and infrastructure will continue to be protected. And yes, it is hideously expensive. But doing nothing is far more expensive.
The Outer Banks beaches are looking great…the small area of Kitty Hawk notwithstanding. Plan on that long overdue trip to the Outer Banks and he sure to stay in a Brindley Beach Vacations home.