What You Should Know About: The Beach Renourishment Program Update

The re-nourishment project for Alabama’s beaches which had been on hold, is finally moving forward. Coastal communities received notice that federal money has been released for the project to pump sand back on beaches in Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, and the Gulf State Park.

The full restoration project with FEMA will take place later this year, but in the meantime, one project is already underway to help critically eroded beaches in Gulf Shores. The city identified two areas that needed to be addressed immediately in the interest of public safety -an area of Little Lagoon Pass and the shoreline near West 9th Street. The city worked with ALDOT on an intermediate solution to dredge sand from Little Lagoon and pump it to the most severely eroded spots of the coastline in the Little Lagoon Pass location. According to Gulf Shores city engineer Mark Acreman. “We have already seen them recover almost a hundred yards of the beach and we’ve seen a vast improvement and we are starting to see the downstream effects of this additional sand being on our beaches.” Acreman added, “This is not a permanent fix. What is happening here will only add a portion of the sand that has been lost. Given the amount of erosion that we’ve had in this area, everybody is happy to see sand coming back on the beach and we still have our big project which will occur late this summer.” The pipe, pushing sand and water to build up the beach will likely be here through the summer.