Residents and property owners have expressed their concerns about the erosion that has occurred along the shoreline of Rodanthe. Dare County officials are hosted a public meeting at the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Center in Rodanthe at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, to address concerns and provide more detailed information regarding the feasibility of  beach nourishment in Rodanthe.

Under N.C. law, the foreshore (wet sand beach) is owned by the state of North Carolina unless they convey those rights away. According to the National Park Service and the State of North Carolina, the foreshore in Rodanthe was conveyed to the Park Service in the deed that created the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Therefore, according to the state and federal authorities, the wet sand beach in Rodanthe is owned by the National Park Service. 

The exact parameters of a potential project in Rodanthe would be determined by the engineers based on the amount of erosion that has occurred along specific stretches of shoreline.

The project scope would be based upon a number of factors including:

• The rate of erosion
• The desired project life
• The amount of funding available to complete a project

All of these factors would be determined by recommendations provided by the coastal engineers tasked with helping Dare County plan and complete a project.

For planning purposes, Dare County is using a 2.25 mile stretch within Rodanthe.

In 2003, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted a law banning hard structures, such as seawalls and terminal groins. This law bans the construction of new, permanent erosion-control structures on beaches within the state.

Other options that aren’t hard structures—such as geotubes and offshore reefs—are not approved for use in North Carolina.

Therefore, beach nourishment is currently the only tool that Dare County has available to protect infrastructure from beach erosion and subsequent flooding and overwash.

Prior to the construction of the Rodanthe Bridge, North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) provided beach nourishment for the protection of N.C. Highway 12.

The NCDOT beach nourishment project was performed in the summer of 2014 in an effort to protect the vulnerable “S-Curves” section of N.C. Highway 12 in Rodanthe, which frequently was closed due to damage and/or ocean overwash. This particular project was performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and funded by NCDOT.

Since the opening of the Rodanthe Bridge, NCDOT no longer intends to provide beach nourishment in this area.

Please note that there are currently no beach nourishment projects approved for Rodanthe.

 If a project is approved in the future, the process would take approximately two to three years from the date funding is available and a project is approved.

Dare County has commissioned engineers to perform a study in Rodanthe to determine the volumes of sand and the cost for a project with a projected five year life in that area.

Once the study is completed, Dare County will have the information necessary to run financial models to determine the feasibility of a project in Rodanthe. When it is determined that a new project is feasible, the county - along with various stakeholders - must prioritize any new project, as there are several highly vulnerable areas along Highway 12 on Hatteras Island.

The Rodanthe Sand Needs Assessment report presents a basic analysis of beach volumes and project costs along 5.7 miles of beachfront in Dare County, NC. Three reaches (Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge ‘PIN WR’, ‘Rodanthe’, and ‘Waves’) exhibit varying degrees of dry beach width, dune crest height, and storm protection. CSE calculated a sand deficit along a critically-eroded portion of the study area to determine the base line volume needed to restore a dry sand beach and protective dune along Rodanthe and adjacent beaches.

The base line deficit is 2.3 million cubic yards (cy) over the 14,000-foot critically eroded area. Erosion rates along that area measure ~300,000 cy per year. CSE recommends the County seek to fill the deficit and place enough sand to offset 5 years’ worth of erosion. Such an effort will require ~3.8 million cy. Assuming mobilization/demobilization costs of $4.5 million, and unit costs of $8 to $10 per cy, a one-time effort of this scale would cost ~$40 million.

Alternatives presented herein include a range of nourishment volumes as well as the potential impacts of including hardened structures such as groins as part of the County’s long-term (eg ~30-yea r) management strategy for the beach at Rodanthe. Estimated costs for a one-time nourishment range from ~$22 to ~$40 million, while one-time costs for groin installation are ~$15 million. Over a 30-year period, a nourishment-only management strategy would cost ~$40 million more than a strategy using groins as well as nourishment.

These volumes and costs are rough estimates. Erosion rates vary, sea levels change, and market conditions for coastal engineering services evolve. While this report is a robust starting point for determining the feasibility of oceanfront work at Rodanthe, CSE recommends the County consider sponsoring a more complete feasibility a study including model-based assessments and economic analyses.

Yes, one of the policies of the county is that prior to investing in nourishment of a beach anywhere in Dare County, sufficient funds must be available for future nourishment on five year intervals. Renourishment projects are included and take priority in the county’s future financial projections for the beach nourishment fund.

Over the past decade, Dare County officials have made numerous attempts to obtain funding from the federal government for beach nourishment. Even with a federally authorized and permitted project, Congress has never allocated funding. This has required all projects in Dare County to be paid for with local funds.

Though requested by Dare County and other local governments along the North Carolina coast, the state of North Carolina has never funded beach nourishment projects other than small grants from time to time.