2025 Myrtle Beach Area
Beach Renourishment Project
Protecting Our Coastline – And Your Beach Experience
The Myrtle Beach area is undergoing a federally funded beach renourishment project to help protect life, property, and wildlife along our 60 miles of coastline. While this important work will be underway for several months, we want to assure visitors that most of the beach will remain open, and disruptions will be brief and minimal.
Beach renourishment restores eroded shorelines by placing sand back on the beach — strengthening our dunes, preserving habitats, and reducing the risk of storm damage. The project is led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District, in partnership with local communities including North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach and Garden City.
Why Are The Beaches Being Renourished?
Beach erosion caused by Hurricanes Ian (2022) and Debby (2024) prompted a post-storm damage assessment, which concluded that beach renourishment was needed to maintain the coastline's integrity and protect the Grand Strand’s infrastructure, homes, and businesses.
This project places 2 million cubic yards of sand (equal to 200,000 dump trucks!) across 26 miles of shoreline.
A beach renourishment effort is typically necessary every seven to 10 years, depending on weather conditions and storms passing through the area. Horry County’s last beach renourishment was in 2019.
How Does This Help The Myrtle Beach Area?
- Provides critical storm surge and erosion protection. By rebuilding and widening the beach, renourishment creates a natural barrier that absorbs the impact of hurricane-driven waves and storm surge. A healthy beach and dune system helps keep floodwaters from reaching homes, businesses, and vital infrastructure like roads and utilities. In past storms, wider beaches have significantly reduced property damage, proving that renourishment is one of the most cost-effective forms of hurricane protection.
- Preserves valuable habitats for sea turtles, shorebirds, and marine life.
- Supports our local economy — the Grand Strand sees millions of visitors annually, generating billions into our local economy, which supports jobs, local services like public safety and schools, and keeps resident taxes low.
- Helps ensure that Myrtle Beach remains beautiful, safe, and resilient for future generations.
Will This Impact My Beach-Trip?
There will be very little impact on your trip to the beach. The project is carefully designed to keep most of the beach open and accessible.
- Work takes place in 1,000-foot sections at a time (about 3 city blocks).
- Each section is closed for only 2–3 days while crews work around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Visitors can still enjoy the rest of the beach — it’s easy to walk around the temporary work zones. Pipelines running along the beach outside of the fenced area can safely be crossed where the contractor places crossover sand ramps over the pipes. The public should keep away from lines and only cross them at the sand crossovers.
- Safety barriers and signage will clearly mark closed areas.
Stay informed with the real-time project tracker here:
Beach Construction Tracker (USACE)
How Long Will It Take?
- Work is expected to begin in late fall 2025 with anticipated completion by mid-summer 2026, depending on weather and equipment availability. Crews will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to stay on schedule. You can expect beach renourishment to begin in the north end and move south under the following planned time table:
- North Myrtle Beach in December 2025
- City of Myrtle Beach in February 2026
- Surfside Beach and Garden City Beach in April 2026
Is The Beach Renourishment Project Safe?
Yes. Safety is the top priority. Here’s what to expect:
- Heavy machinery like bulldozers and pipelines will be present in work zones.
- Please stay out of closed areas and cross only where designated.
- Some noise may occur during construction, including backup alarms from equipment — required by law for safety.
- A firm is contracted to monitor vibrations from the construction equipment throughout the project.
What About Sea Turtles and Wildlife?
The project is being conducted with full respect for local wildlife:
- Daily environmental monitoring is in place for sea turtles, migratory shorebirds and sea life.
- If turtle nests are found in construction zones, they are relocated and protected.
- If a turtle is present, all work in that area stops immediately.
What’s the Cost and Who’s Paying?
- The project is 100% federally funded through emergency relief from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
- Total cost: $72 million — an increase from past projects due to rising equipment costs and greater sand needs.
How Does The Sand Get To The Beach?
The sand is dredged from the offshore borrow areas into a hopper dredge. The hopper dredge motors sand from the borrow area closer to the project site and hooks up to a submerged pipeline. The submerged pipeline runs from just off the beach up onto the beach and connects to shore pipeline, which runs laterally along the dry beach. The sand is discharged as a water/sand slurry mixture through the pipeline, and bulldozers reshape the sand to meet the designed construction template.
The nourishment sand will be excavated by a hydraulic dredge and picks up small amounts of shell and mud with the sand. For that reason, newly placed sand at first often appears quite dark. Within a few days, however, the sun oxidizes the non-sandy material, and the beach eventually turns as light as it was before the project.
Will The Project Uncover Buried Treasures?
While the question might seem a little farfetched, the fact is that there are actually some fascinating things that happen during the process that make it engaging to the entire family:
- The new sand often contains more shells, shell fragments, sea glass and sharks teeth than the native beach. Visitors sometimes find larger or more unusual shells or sharks teeth right after renourishment.
- While offshore borrow areas are carefully chosen to avoid archaeological sites, occasionally small man-made items or unusual stones can surface. Anything significant (like shipwreck material of artifacts) is extremely rate, and if found, it must be reported.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does environmental and archaeological surveys before dredging. Borrow areas are selected specifically to avoid disturbing historic shipwrecks or cultural resources.
How Can I Educate My Family During The Process?
Let's face it, this is an impressive example of engineering. The beach renourishment process can be both fascinating and educational, allowing families to showcase it as a science-based learning lesson.
- It's mind-boggling: millions of cubic yards of sand (equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dump trucks) are added, dramatically changing the beach profile in just days.
- Sand and water shooting onto the beach is fun to watch. The slurry mixture of sand and seawater is discharged with force, almost like a giant firehose, creating a temporary river of sand that bulldozers then shape into a new beach.
- Amazingly dark new sand lightens over time. At first, the sand pumped ahore may look darker or muddier because it's freshly dredged from the ocean floor. Within days, sun and wind bleach it to match the familiar light, golden beach sand.
- Creation of temporary sand "cliffs" - As new sand piles up, the beach may form small ridges or drop-offs that later smooth out, showing how quickly a shoreline reshapes itself.
- Environmental teams patrol daily, relocating sea turtle nests if necessary and halting work if turtles or shorebirds are present. Visitors often get to see the conservation in action.
How Can I Stay Updated?
- The public can track the progress of the project on a real-time basis, including where the temporary closure will take place, with an interactive map created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
- Track progress daily: Construction Tracker
- Follow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District on:
- Facebook: @CharlestonCorps
- Instagram: @CharlestonCorps
- X (formerly Twitter): @CharlestonCorps
For more info, visit the official renourishment page or contact the Corps directly: [email protected] | (843) 360-3879
Thank You
We know how important your beach vacation is — and this project is about keeping our beaches beautiful, safe, and strong for many seasons to come. Thanks for your patience and cooperation as we complete this important work!
