Further Steps to Alleviate Shoreline Erosion

The North Topsail Beach Board of Aldermen took action yesterday to contingently award a contract to construct a sand bag revetment on the north end of Topsail Island.

The Board committed $375,000 of Town funds toward the sand bag project so that the contractor, Carolina Marine Structures, could mobilize and start getting the materials needed in order to construct the sand bag revetment as soon as possible.

The Town recently received an emergency permit from NC Division of Coastal Management and a variance from the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission to construct a sand bag revetment in front of 20 residential structures north of the Topsail Reef Condominium complex.

Three contractors bid on the project and bids were well over the estimated $1.5 to $2.3 million cost. The Town’s coastal engineering firm and Carolina Marine Structures has been working on the details of the project to bring the total project cost down to an affordable amount for the Town and 39 property owners who will be splitting the cost of the project 50/50 via a special assessment.

The Town has been working on the solution to the severe erosion on the north end of the town since August when it originally took action to begin the permitting process to construct a geo-tube to alleviate the erosion in the area.

Since then, the erosion has worsened to the point that a geo-tube was no longer feasible, prompting the Town to instead seek a permit for a sand bag revetment similar to the one that has
already been constructed in front of the Topsail Reef Condominium complex just south of the current sand bag project area.

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Press Release