Isle of Palms to restore heavily eroded sand dunes (2024)

ISLE OF PALMS — The dunes of the barrier island will receive much-needed support from the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year.

The City of Isle of Palms has asked the corps to provide sand to the south end of the island. The city will then shift the material to reconstruct the dune and sand berm that's been eroded by recent storms.

The beneficial use project is associated with the ongoing maintenance dredging of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Mayor Phillip Pounds said the project will aid in improving the safety of the beach near the southern end of the island.

"We anticipate that the (corps)beneficial use project will help recover sand capacity along the Breach Inlet end of the beach which has been impacted by erosion. The city looks forward to the implementation of this project and will continue to work closely with the USACE to ensure a successful project," Pounds said.

Roughly 500,000 cubic yards of sand, or 50,000 dump trucks worth dredged from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway will be placed into the surf zone of the Isle of Palms. The Army Corps will place around 175,000 cubic yards, or 17,500 dump trucks worth, for Sullivan's Island.

"This is a very significant amount of material that we're moving to these two communities," Chief of Civil Works Programs Jeffrey Livasy said. "We're taking material out of the placement area located near Breach Inlet and placing that in the surf zone of the Isle of Palm and Sullivan's Island."

Livasy noted that this project is not a renourishment project, like what is currently underway on Folly Beach. The Army Corps will not be shaping the material in any way, simply placing it near the shore.

Several days after placing the sand, the city wants to take the new material and use it to build up the dunes, as well as place sand fencing and vegetation, on Breach Inlet. The city applied for a regulatory permit from the Army Corps on April 12 to conduct the work.

"One of the dunes along this stretch has just kind of disappeared due to different hurricanes and things like that, so they're looking to restore and rebuild the dunes, which serve as protection for those properties along there," said Megan Jackson, a corps project manager for the dune restoration.

The Army Corps is currently in the preconstruction phase with its contractors for the project. Livasy estimated it will take about six months to deposit the dredged material into the beach's surf zone.

Livasy said the beneficial use project on the Isle of Palms is in line with the Army Corps' goal to reuse a majority of material from its dredging projects.

"That's been exciting for us because now we will have another example here within the state of South Carolina where we're aggressively pursuing that (goal) where we can," Livasy said.

Other beneficial use projects include placing sand onto Crab Bank in 2022 and Bird Key Stono in March, seabird sanctuaries on Shem Creek and the Stono Inlet, respectively.