CSE is pleased to continue our 11-year partnership with the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, Bureau of Coastal Management (SCDES BCM – formerly OCRM) to monitor South Carolina’s beaches through their BERM (Beach Erosion Research and Monitoring) project. After recently completing our 2022-2024 monitoring agreement, we are honored to be awarded the 2025-2027 contract–continuing services provided to the state since 2013. Coastal monitoring is critical to the SCDES BCM coastal zone management program. This monitoring documents the health and condition of South Carolina beaches. It provides data to help managers identify environmental impacts, avoid future adverse impacts, determine renourishment needs, improve storm protection, and manage beach and dune growth or recession.

The BERM project encompasses ~110 miles of South Carolina’s developed sections of coastline (divided into 397 transects), including three state parks and one uninhabited island (Waties Island). Monitoring is broken down by location and season and scheduled over a year. Coastal surveys are conducted on land and overwater. Land-based (topographic) surveys measure the beach and dune using a survey rod and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. Overwater (bathymetric) data is collected on a marine vessel equipped with underwater survey equipment. These surveys are also documented with aerial and panoramic imagery captured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Each year, CSE collects and processes data at all SCDES BCM survey sites and provides digital files to the agency for review and documentation.

CSE brings to this project the longest history of beach monitoring in South Carolina. For 40 years, CSE has collected topographic and bathymetric data on almost every beach and inlet in the state. Our staff is intimately familiar with South Carolina’s coastline based on prior experience mapping shorelines, designing beach nourishment projects, and performing annual monitoring for several communities. CSE values the trust SCDES BCM has placed in our monitoring services. We look forward to supporting the BERM project for another three years.

 

January 16-17, CSE attends the South Carolina Beach Advocates 2025 Annual Meeting in Isle of Palms, SC, to present beach management updates for 2024-2025 non-federal projects. This conference brings together leaders and industry experts to engage in insightful conversations about protecting South Carolina’s coastline. These discussions include beach management challenges for South Carolina communities, coastal legislative updates, and beach nourishment initiatives.

The South Carolina Beach Advocates is a nonprofit organization formed in 2015 by mayors and administrators of the state’s beach communities to advocate for South Carolina beach preservation. Its mission is to educate the public, governmental authorities, and elected officials on the environmental, economic, and societal impact of South Carolina’s beaches and inlets on communities. South Carolina’s beaches provide critical habitat and protection from storms and serve as one of the most vital economic engines in the state.

CSE is a proud sponsor of SC Beach Advocates. Since 1989, we have had the privilege to provide beach management services for many South Carolina communities and are intimately familiar with the challenges they face. We are excited to support SC Beach Advocates and their ongoing mission to emphasize the importance of protecting our coast for future generations.

CSE is currently managing a renourishment project in partnership with First Coastal Corporation and the Town of Southampton (NY) to place approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of sand along 5.6 miles of oceanfront. Southampton’s Bridgehampton and Sagaponack Beach Erosion Control Districts have contracted with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company (GLDD) to provide dredging services. GLDD is currently mobilizing to the site and is expected to begin pumping sand onto the beach within the next two weeks.

The 2025 renourishment project is designed to supplement a previous 2013-2014 project, which placed 2.5 million cubic yards of sand along the same length of coastline. CSE had the privilege of directing this initiative, which received the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) “Best Restored Beaches” award in 2018. These nourishment projects are part of an ongoing long-term coastal management plan to replenish sand lost due to erosion and hurricanes, increase storm protection for oceanfront properties and infrastructure, widen the recreational beach, and provide additional natural habitat for wildlife.

Once the dredging is underway, work will occur 24/7 (including holidays) unless mechanical issues or rough sea conditions require a shutdown. Weather permitting, construction is expected to continue for approximately two months.

On August 16, 2022, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. (GLDD) delivered the last load for CSE’s second beach nourishment project at the Village of Buxton. The project used two dredges (Ellis Island and Liberty Island) to pump 1.2 million cubic yards of sand along 2.9 miles of oceanfront from the Haulover Day Use Area to the ocean groin field near the former location of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. An initial frontal dune with a typical width of 20 feet was also built along the Village of Buxton to provide storm protection along this highly eroding area.

The Buxton renourishment project is one of two projects CSE manages for Dare County, NC. The neighboring beach fronting the Village of Avon was nourished simultaneously with Buxton to achieve optimal production and cost savings for each project. With the flexibility of having both the Ellis Island and the Liberty Island on site in Dare County, GLDD switched dredge assignments between Buxton and Avon to complete the project in 48 days, minimizing interruptions for oceanfront property owners, residents, and beachgoers.

GLDD began the Buxton renourishment project with America’s largest hopper dredge, the Ellis Island, on Sunday, June 30, 2022, using a submerged pipeline near South Tower Circle. The Ellis Island is America’s largest dredge, with a capacity of over 10,000 cubic yards of sand per load. During the 26 days when the Ellis Island worked at the Buxton job site, it completed 668,000 cubic yards of sand placement. This quantity is equivalent to approximately 56 percent of the total project volume.

By comparison, the second hopper dredge, the Liberty Island, has half the capacity per load, but it only requires half of the digging and pumping turnaround time. During the 20 days of working in Buxton, the Liberty Island was able to place approximately 532,000 cubic yards of sand. This quantity is equivalent to roughly 44 percent of the total project volume.

Buxton’s first beach nourishment project was completed between June 21, 2017, and February 27, 2018, along the same stretch of oceanfront as the 2022 renourishment project. The primary purpose of the 2017–2018 project was to provide a wider beach and buffer storm waves along this critically eroding section of Hatteras Island. It was designed to reduce the frequency of storm damage to N.C. Highway 12 and the existing community infrastructure. Approximately 2.6 million cubic yards of beach-quality sand was excavated from an offshore borrow area and placed along the 2.9-mile stretch of shoreline.

After project completion, the newly nourished beach withstood a series of nor’easters in March 2018. It also endured Hurricane Florence in September 2018, Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, and other winter storms without much interruption to N.C. Highway 12 traffic or damage to the Buxton oceanfront properties. However, nourishment sand was lost outside of the project area after each weather event since project completion, and Buxton returned to pre-nourishment conditions before the 2022 renourishment project was implemented. Some sand bags were exposed due to erosion, and property owners installed new sand bags as a temporary shoreline protection measure. The loss of dry beach made N.C. Highway 12 vulnerable to flooding and breaching once again.

The 2022 renourishment is similar to the 2017–2018 nourishment in its construction method, construction window, and potential environmental impact but smaller in scale (ie – 1.2 million cubic yards in 2022 versus 2.6 million cubic yards in 2017). A significant difference between the two projects is the dune construction. No dune was constructed in 2017. Dare County chose to integrate an initial dune in the 2022 Buxton renourishment plan to establish uniform standards for enhancing dune growth and coastal resiliency.

CSE thanks Dare County for the opportunity to serve as engineer for this successful renourishment project.

CSE is pleased to continue our 8-year partnership with SCDHEC-OCRM (South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management) to monitor South Carolina’s beaches through their BERM (Beach Erosion Research and Monitoring) project. As our 2019-2021 monitoring contract comes to a close, we are honored to be awarded the 2022-2024 contract–continuing services provided to the state since 2013. Coastal monitoring is a critical element of OCRM’s coastal zone management program. This monitoring documents the health and condition of South Carolina beaches and provides data to help managers identify environmental impacts, avoid future adverse impacts, determine renourishment needs, improve storm protection, and manage beach and dune growth or recession.

CSE brings to this project the longest history of beach monitoring in South Carolina. For over 30 years, CSE has collected topographic and bathymetric data on almost every beach and inlet in the state. Our staff is intimately familiar with South Carolina’s coastline based on prior experience mapping shorelines, designing beach nourishment projects, and performing annual monitoring for several communities. Coastal surveys are conducted on land and overwater. Land-based (topographic) surveys measure the beach and dune using a survey rod and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. Overwater (bathymetric) data is collected on a marine vessel equipped with underwater survey equipment. These surveys are also documented with aerial and panoramic imagery captured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Each year, CSE collects and processes data collected at all OCRM survey sites and provides digital files to the agency for review and documentation.

CSE values the trust OCRM has placed in our monitoring services. We look forward to supporting the BERM project for another three years.

Click here to read CSE president Tim Kana’s editorial in The State newspaper about the benefits of beach nourishment projects along the South Carolina coast.

ASBPA presented a Best Restored Beach Award to Charleston County Parks & Recreation Commission at its annual Summit Conference in Washington (DC) in February 2016.  The award recognized the Folly Beach County Park project which restored Charleston’s most popular public beach.  This is the third CSE project recognized by ASBPA, joining our 2008 Isle of Palms (SC) and 2011 Nags Head (NC) nourishment projects.

The Folly Beach project was completed in 2013 and incorporated a 750-foot-long terminal groin.  As a result of the project, the park was able to reopen and provide parking for 400 vehicles.  Tom O’Rourke, Executive Director of CCPRC, said that the park would have been abandoned without the terminal groin to retain sand.  It had been nourished 11 times between 1979 and 2005, but could not retain sand being drawn off by Folly River and Stono Inlet.  Incorporating a groin into the project was the preferred alternative with lowest projected maintenance costs.

The project was completed on budget in record time with groin construction by The Industrial Company (TIC–Savannah GA) closely coordinated with a 400,000-cubic-yard nourishment by Marinex Construction (Charleston SC) using a hydraulic dredge.  The 2,000-foot-long project area was overfilled so that groin construction could proceed, working in-the-dry, beginning at the seaward end of the structure.  Excess sand moved downcoast around and over the structure, leaving a natural profile and beach planform upon completion.  Rentz Engineering with CSE designed the steel, sheet-pile groin with concrete cap to match the natural slope of the beach.  The resulting low profile has less reveal, preserves vistas, and allows pedestrian access downcoast.