Surf City’s long-awaited 50-year beach nourishment project is moving forward with federal funding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District announced Tuesday.

The district has been given the green light to use previously appropriated Disaster Relief Act of 2019 construction funds for the project, which entails placing about 6.5 million cubic yards of sand along the town’s roughly six-mile shoreline. The project also calls for building a new dune and an estimated 50-foot-wide beach berm.

“This approval represents an important milestone for the Surf City Coastal Storm Risk Management Project and allows us to begin the final steps necessary before construction can begin,” Wilmington District Commander Col. Brad Morgan stated in a release. “We appreciate the continued partnership with the Town of Surf City as we work together to deliver a project that will provide long-term coastal storm risk reduction for the Surf City community.”

The approved funding allows the Corps to execute a project partnership agreement with Surf City, complete final engineering and design activities, and begin preparations for construction of the federally authorized coastal storm risk management project.

“Today’s announcement marks a major milestone for Surf City and the future of our coastline,” Surf City Mayor Teresa Batts stated in a release. “The approval to move this project forward reflects years of hard work, collaboration, and a shared commitment among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and our federal, state, county, and local partners. We’re grateful to everyone who helped bring us to this point, and we look forward to beginning the construction phase. This project will help protect our shoreline, preserve our beaches, strengthen our community, and ensure Surf City remains a place that residents and visitors can enjoy for generations to come.”

More than 20 years has passed since Surf City and North Topsail Beach initiated a feasibility study to evaluate long-term beach restorations efforts. North Topsail Beach in 2021 withdrew from the project, which required additional federal review and approvals.

In 2024, Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., secured language in the Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, 2024 directing the Corps to expedite a report for Surf City’s coastal storm risk management project.

The Corps finalized that report in July 2025.

“The Town of Surf City, after years of work, now has the federal approval and funding it needs to strengthen its coastal resilience and better safeguard the community’s homes, businesses and infrastructure from future storms for decades to come,” Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., stated Tuesday in a release. “I am proud to have been a part of this effort, and I thank all who have been involved for their great work to make this a reality, including the critical work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Trump Administration.”

Under the recently released WRDA 2026, the North Topsail Beach portion of the project is deauthorized and Surf City’s project will receive $362.3 million in federal funding for future beach renourishment.

A temporary traffic signal is being installed next week near the island roundabout at N.C. 50 and N.C. 210 in Surf City to help alleviate congestion as the summer tourism season nears.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation and Surf City are piloting the signal beginning May 6 and it will remain in place for at least two weeks, with an option to extend if officials find it is helping ease the flow of traffic.

Motorists crossing the bridge onto the island will be stopped at the temporary traffic light before entering the roundabout, allowing more time for vehicles on the island to get through the roundabout, according to a DOT release.

“With the busy season approaching, we understand the increased demand on the roundabout and the congestion it’s causing,” Michelle Howes, DOT Division 3 deputy division engineer stated. “We, along with our Town of Surf City partners, are piloting this approach that was recently identified in a feasibility study. Please be patient as we work towards a long-term solution.”

The town will install temporary barriers to limit pedestrian crossing in the roundabout. Signed detour routes will be placed out for pedestrians.

“Efforts to increase traffic efficiency are greatly appreciated by the Town, and we look forward to working with NCDOT to pilot this project,” Surf City Town Manager Kyle Brewer said in a release. “The Town will evaluate the effectiveness of this application for potential future decision making as we continue to work with all partners to resolve traffic congestion.”

DOT officials will analyze the effectiveness of the temporary signal and explore whether it may be suitable as a long-term solution.

The agency encourages drivers to slow day, pay close attention to the signal and follow all signage.

SURF CITY – Kerri Allen acknowledged early on what was also obvious to her audience.

“I do not need to tell anyone in here we have a really high density of leases,” the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s coastal management program director said. “In our public trust waters, when you have that many users, there are going to be conflicts.”

Several people sitting inside the Surf City Municipal Complex’s town council chambers that April 14 afternoon nodded in agreement, eager to share their thoughts on the subject.

With either temporary or permanent shellfish leasing moratoriums in North Carolina waters to its north and south, Topsail Island’s waters have become a hot commodity for oyster growers.

There are now nearly 190 shellfish leases in the waters behind the 26-mile-long barrier island from the New River and its adjacent estuarine waters south to Topsail Sound.

That’s a roughly 46% increase from the collective number of leases in 2018 in Onslow and Pender counties.

The squeeze put on the waters around Topsail Island has prompted ongoing calls for a temporary moratorium on new shellfish leases in the area.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, which is composed of elected officials from each of the island’s three towns – Topsail Beach, Surf City and North Topsail Beach – initiated a request for a temporary pause on leases more than a year ago. Commissioners in Onslow and Pender counties did the same.

Shellfish lease moratoriums in the state may be enacted only by the North Carolina General Assembly.

On April 10, 2025, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation requiring a statewide study on shellfish leasing and the current lease moratorium.

House Bill 841 made it no further than the Senate’s Rules and Operations Committee.

“If there is a temporary moratorium, we don’t feel that’s unreasonable,” Allen said last week.

A pause would give the Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant more time to talk with those who live along and use the waters around the island and come up with suggestions to help shape future policy that would protect the industry, make it sustainable long term, and ease user conflicts, she said.

Additional focus groups, including one for shellfish growers, will be scheduled this fall.

Meanwhile, a temporary moratorium that has been repeatedly extended since it was first enacted in New Hanover County in 2019 is set to expire in July.

“It’s very reasonable to say if we were able to open up some of these other areas that could help alleviate the pressure that this area is seeing,” Allen said. “A lot of the oyster growers that we work with in this region live in New Hanover County and they would love not to have to drive up here to take care of their farms. We are actively trying to get New Hanover to not extend their moratorium. I do not have a good feel, one way or another, how that’s going to go yet, but we are having those conversations.”

Surf City Mayor Teresa Batts said officials on the island do not intend to wait for a decision before asking for a temporary moratorium.

“I know you’re going to go through the procedural steps, but the TISPC, we’re not going to sit back and wait,” she said. “If we see that New Hanover County is trying to extend their moratorium, then we’re going to try to slide in there on their session and piggyback on their moratorium.”

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and North Carolina Sea Grant teamed up last year to launch a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database pinpointing areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind Topsail Island. The GIS database is anticipated to be published next year.

Recommendations shared with the organizations will help shape the North Carolina Strategic Plan for Shellfish Mariculture, a plan commissioned by the General Assembly in 2017.

This document is effectively the state’s roadmap for a sustainable shellfish industry. It’s not meant to be a fixed document, rather one that evolves as the industry evolves and conditions change, Allen explained, adding, “which they very much have changed since 2017.”

In the years since, the state has seen a shift where shellfish farmers are using floating gear to grow oysters in the water column, a method that allows them to maximize the spaces in which they grow their product.

Unlike cages that are placed on the waterbed, those in water column leases poke up from the water’s surface.

And, as more water column leases have been granted, complaints have mounted about their impacts to the viewsheds of waterfront properties, boating and kayaking access, and infringement on popular fishing spots.

Fishing guide Capt. Ray Brittain offered to take Allen and N.C. Sea Grant Extension Director Frank López on his boat, and on his dime, to show them how the leases affect his business.

“There’s so many PVC pipes out there,” Brittain said. “You don’t need a thousand PVC pipes to mark,” a lease area. “We can’t fish in those. I mean, mark your outer edge to show people where it is, but a lot of it is just unnecessary stuff.”

Brittain was among nearly 30 attendees at the April 14 meeting, where participants were asked to break into two groups to discuss concerns and recommendations that will be documented and shared with local elected officials, legislators, and state agency officials.

Those at the meeting in Surf City last week touched on a host of issues, raising concerns related noise associated with shellfish farming activities, nighttime navigation around shellfish leases, the density of leases around Permuda Island Reserve, and linear placement of leases along estuary island shorelines blocking anglers from following fish.

Some asked for shellfish farmers to be required to carry liability insurance, while others suggested the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries create a more robust public notification system announcing lease applications that would include property owners whose land is within and adjacent to the viewshed of a proposed lease.

Other recommendations included an implementation of buffers by moving leases further from shorelines based on specific locations within a waterbody, potentially increasing lease fees, decreasing the length of time a lease is valid, and the possibility of commissioning studies on the impacts of floating cages on the ecosystem.

The Coastal Federation and Sea Grant are accepting comments online through the Stump Sound shellfish mariculture planning – stakeholder input form through Aug. 1.

Jean Beasley was one of those people seemingly born to lead, happy to work in the trenches with a fervor and tenacity that magnetized others to her.

It was her charisma, her penchant to teach others about sea turtles, her drive to protect the iconic ocean dwellers, and her determination to carry out her daughter’s vision that led to the founding of the beloved Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island.

Beasley died early Tuesday morning “in the company of loved ones,” according to a center Facebook post. She was 90.

As word has spread of her passing, the center has received an outpouring from former interns expressing how Beasley’s passion and guidance shaped not only their career paths, but also their lives.

“I can attest to that because my life was completely changed after I met her,” Terry Meyer, the center’s deputy and conservation director and Beasley’s longtime friend, said Wednesday morning.

Meyer was introduced to Beasley in 1995 at Topsail Beach’s annual Autumn With Topsail Festival. Tucked somewhere among booths featuring handmade arts and crafts was Beasley’s stand, where she explained the Topsail Turtle Project Nesting Program to any interested passersby.

“She mentioned that there was a nest in front of her house if we wanted to go look at it. She lives about a block away from my house so I did walk down there, and she came charging out of the house in a very protective mode, which I would later learn the turtle people do,” Meyer said.

Those initial, brief encounters would later prompt Meyer to attend a volunteer meeting of the Topsail Turtle Project.

“She’s so charismatic. When I left that meeting, I thought protecting sea turtles was the most important, noble thing I could do with my life. I mean, she’s just, it was like three hours of brainwashing, and I never looked back,” Meyer laughed.

By that time, Beasley had long established a home in Surf City.

The native North Carolinian grew up in Henderson, a small town a little more than 40 miles northeast of Raleigh. She was awarded a full scholarship to Duke University, where she earned a degree and received her teacher certification in 1958.

She first moved to Topsail Island with her husband, Fred, after he received orders to Camp Lejeune, according to a 2005 report in the Wilmington Star-News.

The couple lived on the island two short years before Fred Beasley got out of the Marine Corps and took a job in Ohio, where they lived for 20 years. There, they raised sons, Barney and Kevin, and daughter, Karen.

Each year, the family would vacation in Topsail Island. Jean and Fred returned to Topsail Island to live full time in the early 1980s after he retired.

Less than 10 years after their move to Surf City, Karen, 29, died in 1991 from leukemia. Jean picked up the torch and carried forward Karen’s plans for the turtle project.

Within five years of Karen’s death, Jean struck up a deal with Topsail Beach to lease a small, waterfront lot nestled along Banks Channel and just behind town hall for $1 a year.

The new sea turtle hospital opened in 1997.

“A lot of groundbreaking, excellent work went on in that 900-square-foot building and that’s where our heart was,” Meyer said. “When I tell people we literally fished off the end of the dock to feed the turtles, that is a true story. Those are our humble beginnings. It was all running on a dream and it was running on Jean’s charisma.”

Beasley “had a big smile, and she had a hug for everybody, but she also had an iron will and she ran the program from a position of strength,” Meyer said.

Patient demand pushed the hospital to capacity, and then some, on a recurring basis, and, in 2013, a new, 13,000-square-foot center was opened on Surf City’s mainland.

“Our success over the years and being in this building today is because of Jean’s stewardship and leadership and our ability to properly manage our funds while saving hundreds of turtles,” Meyer said.

As of Wednesday, the hospital had cared for “at least” 1,701 turtles, she said. Of those, 1,290 had been rehabilitated and released.

In its Facebook post announcing Jean’s death, center officials thanked her “for sharing your dreams with us.”

“You inspired us to create a better world – for the turtles, for Mother Ocean, and for all. We will do our best to carry forward your legacy. Swim in Peace.”

Beasley was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sea Turtle Society in 2017.

She stepped down as the center’s executive director in 2021 and later moved to Tennessee to live with one of her sons and daughters-in-law, Meyer said.

Up until this year, Jean would return in the summers to visit the center.

“It was very important to us and to her to have her meet with our interns and just impart some stories and some history,” Meyer said. “We followed her because she demonstrated every day what it took to save sea turtles because she did the work. She was down and dirty doing the work every day, and she didn’t shy away from any task. I watched her – from medical treatments on sea turtles to gluing PVC together, to repairing a pump – she did all things and she led by example. You know, it’s like she was our beating heart.”

Leaders from Holly Ridge, Surf City, North Topsail Beach, Topsail Beach, a state transportation official and a legislative representative have been invited to speak during the Greater Topsail Community Update set to take place in May.

The Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the Holly Ridge Community Center, 404 Sound Road.

A breakfast buffet will be served while speakers share firsthand updates on upcoming initiatives, including capital improvement projects and other key developments.

“This informative gathering is an excellent opportunity for residents, business owners, and stakeholders to stay informed and engaged with the progress of our local communities,” organizers said.

Cost is $20 per person. Register online or at topsailchamber.org.

Topsail Island leaders are unwavering in their pursuit of stopping new leases of shellfish farms in the waters around them.

Months have passed since the island’s three towns — North Topsail Beach, Surf City and Topsail Beach — and their respective counties banded together to ask state legislators for a moratorium on new shellfish leases in Onslow and Pender’s coastal waterways.

“Of course, we all support aquaculture,” North Topsail Beach Alderman Mike Benson said during a recent town board meeting.

But the rising number of leases, fueled because of moratoriums in surrounding coastal counties, has led to what local leaders say amount to mounting conflicts between recreational uses of public waters and shellfish leases that restrict access to those waters.

Prohibiting all new shellfish leases across Onslow and Pender counties could be detrimental to the state’s growing shellfish industry, one that reportedly boasts an economic impact of $30 million annually in North Carolina.

“This industry is a particularly bright spot for North Carolina in that farming clams and oysters is quite sustainable environmentally,” said Dr. Jane Harrison, a coastal economics specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant. “We’ve seen a huge uptick in production numbers from farming oysters, in particular, over the last decade and we don’t want to lose that momentum.”

North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Federation have teamed up in hopes of launching a plan that would result in the creation of a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database that pinpoints areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind the 26-mile-long island.

That database would be built by a GIS specialist from North Carolina State University using feedback the organizations aim to get from different focus groups made up of users of those waters, be it shellfish farmers, fishing guides, recreational fishers, or island waterfront property owners.

“We want to bring together many different voices to gather their perspectives and then put their information, their interest, into that GIS database,” Harrison said.

Sea Grant and the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, have applied for a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant Office to fund the plan.

If awarded the grant, the plan would kick off around September, when the GIS specialist would gather existing data, including information from the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Shellfish Lease Siting Tool, to work up a baseline of information that will be presented to focus groups. UNCW’s interactive tool assesses coastal conditions in the state to help shellfish growers locate new or expand current operations.

There would be three focus groups: one consisting of shellfish growers in Pender and Onslow counties, one that includes recreational water users and waterfront property owners in Onslow County, and one that includes those groups in Pender County.

Those groups would be initially separated out “because we want folks to feel like they can fully share whatever their concerns or needs are and we don’t want to create an environment of conflict,” Harrison said. “We just want spaces where people can give us every piece of information they have and then we will digest it, compile it, and then have some community conversations.”

Feedback from those conversations would be gathered and used to create a draft resource use agreement and guidelines for equal water access in partnership with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

Once finalized, that resource use agreement and guidelines would be published to the public, where it could be used in other coastal regions in not only North Carolina, but other states.

The proposal has gained traction with local officials. The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, and the counties, has signaled its support for the plan, Harrison said. The commission is made up of elected officials and local government appointees from the island’s three towns.

In an April 2 letter to the Division of Marine Fisheries, North Topsail Beach highlighted the plan as “another justification for a pause” on new shellfish leases.

“A temporary pause would allow us to evaluate the current situation, develop comprehensive management strategies, and ensure that future growth in the shellfish industry is balanced with the needs of our community and the environment,” the letter states.

The North Topsail Beach Board of Aldermen unanimously agreed to send the letter to the division ahead of its April 22 public hearing on six new proposed shellfish leases in Onslow County.

The hearing is scheduled to be held in person at 6 p.m. at the Holly Ridge Community Center and virtually via Webex.

That hearing will follow one on two proposed shellfish leases in Pender County scheduled for 6 p.m. April 15 at Topsail Beach Town Hall, 820 S. Anderson Blvd., and virtually via Webex.

During the April 2 meeting of North Topsail’s town board, Alderman Benson said the consensus of the island’s shoreline protection commission is that the towns and counties continue their request for a moratorium.

A proposed draft bill for a moratorium was not introduced in either the state Senate by its March 25 deadline or the House as of publication of this report. The deadline for the House was extended to April 10. 

“There are 111 leases in Onslow County,” Beson said. “We have 647 acres of land in those 111 leases.”

North Topsail Beach and the northernmost portion of Surf City are in Onslow County.

There are opportunities to identify areas within the waterways of the island that are “truly not well served by shellfish aquaculture,” Harrison said.

“There may be special fishing spots that the charter captains want to make sure they have access to,” she said. “There may be viewsheds that are very important to local residents. We have a lot of successful entrepreneurs in shellfish aquaculture in these two counties and shellfish aquaculture produces seafood that many of us like to eat. At the end of the day, it may be that the industry in Pender and Onslow counties can’t grow at the rate it has been. There might be a need for it to be less expansive because of existing leases and farms. But what I want to steer us away from is just a blanket prohibition, as if no new farm could ever take place in a copacetic way.”

Topsail Island towns are banding together to dramatically reduce the presence of an invasive plant that chokes out native vegetation on oceanfront dunes.

Beach vitex, a thick, woody vine that sheds its leaves seasonally, is growing on more than 170 properties spanning the three towns on the 26-mile-long barrier island.

Those properties were identified in what has been described as a cursory, “windshield” survey conducted to give officials an idea of where and how much of the plant is on the island’s oceanfront dunes.

“We know there’s more out there,” said Topsail Beach Assistant Town Manager Christina Burke.

The survey provided enough information for that town, North Topsail Beach and Surf City to jointly apply for a North Carolina Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund grant.

In May, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources awarded those towns a collective $690,060.50, enough to cover half of the total projected cost of the first two years of what will be a four-year project.

According to the interlocal agreement, the towns “will continue to work together to secure additional funding to carry the project out to completion.”

Each town will be responsible for matching its portion of the grant.

North Topsail Beach last week joined Surf City in adopting an interlocal agreement that sets the terms for the aptly named Topsail Island Vitex Eradication Project.

Topsail Beach commissioners are expected to consider the agreement at their meeting Wednesday evening.

If the board greenlights the agreement, a resolution to accept the grant funding will be put to a vote most likely next month, Burke said.

The idea is to put out a request for proposal, or a formal document asking for contractor bids, by either December or January.

Topsail Beach agreed to be the fiscal agent to administer the grant funds, which are the culmination of a partnership initiated by the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission.

The commission functions as a collaboration to preserve the beaches and surrounding waterways of the barrier island and is made up of elected officials and local government appointees from each town and Onslow and Pender counties.

Commission members began a couple of years ago discussing the need for an island-wide project to tackle eradicating the invasive plant that has wound its way over and along oceanfront dunes in the Carolinas after being introduced to the Southeastern United States in the mid-1980s.

But what was originally planted for ornamental purposes and sand dune stabilization escaped cultivation, crowding out sea oats, American beachgrass, seaside panicum and other native plants, ultimately threatening endangered loggerhead sea turtle nesting habitat, federally threatened seabeach amaranth and other rare plants and animals.

The state initiated efforts in 2005 to document locations of beach vitex and control its spread by creating the NC Beach Vitex Task Force in February of that year.

“Knowing it’s an invasive species and threatening to the dune system and the ecological system that we have here, the turtles, we decided to do something about it,” Burke said.

Based on the survey, Topsail Beach has the most properties – 93 – where beach vitex is present. Surf City has 45. A total of 35 properties were noted to have the plant in North Topsail Beach.

“That is just so incomplete still,” Burke said.

Eradicating beach vitex can be a rather painstaking process, one that requires a scratch-and-dab method where the bark of a vine must be scratched off before an herbicide can be applied.

Glyphosate, a systemic herbicide that blocks an enzyme essential for plant growth, is a chemical commonly used in killing beach vitex.

Beach vitex usually requires a couple of treatment applications, after which the plant must be monitored to ensure it is dying back. Treatment must occur only in summer.

“You have to kill it first and then you have to cut it out,” Burke explained.

Precautions must be taken when removing dead beach vitex to ensure seeds do not fall from the vines onto the ground and recultivate.

Treating the 93 properties in Topsail Beach alone is expected to cost an estimated $584,000.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission will provide up-to-date information on its website as the project moves forward and continue efforts to educate property owners about the pesky plant.

Property owners will receive a waiver to sign off on that will the contractor to access individual lots to begin treatment, Burke said.

“They see all this lush vegetation and they’re like, oh my gosh, look at my dune system, it’s great, it’s so healthy. I think with the education of vitex and how dangerous it is to the dune system, people are going to me more apt to allow us to come in,” she said. “We have people who call us that say, please put me on that list, I have vitex and I want to be part of this project so I think the attitude has changed with the education of vitex.”

SURF CITY – If everything goes accordingly, Surf City’s ocean shore may begin getting massive sand injections by the end of next year.

The town’s federal coastal storm risk management project — more than 20 years in the making — will put a total of 21.8 million cubic yards of sand on the beach over the course of a half-century.

“That’s a lot of sand,” said Kent Tranter, project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington district.

Tranter kicked off a public meeting in the town Tuesday night in a presentation of the Corps’ draft general reevaluation report and environmental assessment released last month on the project.

“I will caution you, this is the draft report. Things will change,” he said in front of an audience of more than 40 people.

The draft report is an update on a proposed project that originally included a portion of neighboring North Topsail Beach’s shore.

At the time, the two Topsail Island towns agreed to team up and commit to a cost-share agreement with the Corps to see the project through.

Under the original partnership agreement, Surf City, North Topsail and the state were to split 35% of the cost of the project’s initial construction. The Corps would pay 65%.

But the Corps would not get the funding to cover its portion until 2019, nine years after Wilmington district officials completed its feasibility study of the project.

During that time, the project’s cost more than doubled.

North Topsail Beach would have had to finance more than $26 million to pay its share of the project, which would have covered nearly 4 miles of beachfront. The remaining more than 7 miles of oceanfront is within a federally designated zone that omits it from receiving federal funding.

In July 2021, North Topsail Beach notified the Corps that the town would not be able to meet its deadline to commit to signing a project partnership agreement with the agency and Surf City.

North Topsail’s withdrawal meant the Corps had to reexamine the project and determine whether it remained economically justified, technically feasible and environmentally acceptable, Tranter said.

The updated project includes all 6 miles of oceanfront beach and will extend about 1,000 linear feet into the northernmost portion of North Topsail Beach. That extension across town lines will round out the project footprint for all of Surf City’s shore, Corps officials explained.

A whopping 8 million cubic yards of material will be pumped from several Corps-designated offshore borrow sites and onto the beach during initial construction.

The beach would be renourished about every six years, depending on sand erosion rates and coastal storms.

The price tag for initial construction, which is expected to begin in December 2025 if approved, is $187 million.

Construction is expected to take 16 months, during which time property owners may expect round-the-clock work.

Construction zones between 1,000-1,500 feet wide will be cordoned off, leaving a small portion of the beach closed at one time.

The public will be able to access a map on the Corps’ website that will include information about when and where construction zones will be located.

Wilmington District Commander Col. Brad Morgan thanked the town Tuesday night for sticking with the Corps through the long wait.

“I know this has been somewhat of a journey to get to this point,” he said. “We’re committed to delivering this project. We’ve got a lot of hoops to jump through, most of which are dictated by law. This is kind of the last hurdle. The team if fully committed to working with the town of Surf City to deliver this.”

Under the current schedule, construction would end in 2027. That would be the year the 50-year project begins. If that is the case, the project would end in 2076.

Corps officials will release further details about the project, including which area of the beach will be the first to receive sand, after the agency receives the contractor’s work plan.

The Corps is accepting public comments on the draft report through Oct. 4. All comments submitted will be address in the final report, which is expected to be presented in January 2025.

Questions and comments may be emailed to surfcitygrr@usace.army.mil or eric.k.gasch@usace.army.mil.

The Corps of Engineers is hosting a public information meeting next week on Surf City’s long-awaited federal beach nourishment project.

Corps officials will discuss findings of the draft General Reevaluation Report and Environmental Assessment for the town’s coastal storm risk management project, one that entails significantly injecting the amount on the town’s ocean shoreline by constructing a new wider and taller dune.

The project will be the largest beach nourishment project to have been accomplished on the East Coast, according to the town’s website. Initial construction is expected to take 16 months, during which time an estimated 7.9 million cubic yards of sand is anticipated to be injected onto the town’s nearly 6-mile beach.

The draft report was released about two years after North Topsail Beach, the town just north of Surf City on Topsail Island, withdrew from what had been a dune and beach nourishment partnership in July 2021.

North Topsail Beach officials at the time said they pulled out of the partnership because of rising project costs.

The public meeting is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the Surf City Municipal Complex, 214 W. Florence Way, Hampstead.

Corps personnel will be available to answer questions and receive comments at the meeting.

The report and assessment are available online. A 30-day public comment period on those documents closes Oct. 4.

Once the comment period ends, the Corps will include the public comments into a final report. The goal of the Corps is to complete the study process with a Chief of Engineers Report being signed off in May 2025, according to a release.