Folly Beach Renourishment Project Underway

- The current project is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiative with a budget of $18 million, fully funded by the federal government. The goal is to place approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of sand, sourced from the Folly River, along a five-mile stretch of the shoreline. - Work is being conducted in sections of roughly 1,000 feet at a time, which are temporarily closed to the public. A large pipeline runs along the beach for the duration of the project, with sand ramps created to allow for shoreline access. - This renourishment is part of a long-term federal commitment to combat chronic erosion on Folly Beach, a problem largely attributed to jetties constructed in the Charleston harbor in the 1890s that interrupt the natural flow of sand. - Since the federal shore-protection program began in 1993, Folly Beach has undergone six renourishments, with a total of 8.7 million cubic yards of sand added to the beach. Previous projects occurred in 2005, 2014, and 2018. - In addition to restoring the recreational beach, the project is designed to reduce storm damage risk to coastal infrastructure and includes the placement of 40,000 cubic yards of sand for habitat restoration on Bird Key. - The project's contractor, Gator Dredging, began work in the spring of 2024 and is expected to complete the project by September 2024. - Once the new sand is placed, it will initially appear darker than the existing beach sand. It is also designed to shift and move offshore, which may look like rapid erosion but is an intentional part of building up the underwater beach profile to better dampen wave energy. - A 2025 Post-Nourishment Monitoring Report on a recent project found it to be performing exceptionally well, leaving Folly Beach in a stronger position for hurricane season in terms of sand volume and shoreline stability.