1 week Ago By Tyler Nicole
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Since 1974, the city has periodically pumped sand onto Tybee Island's beaches to restore the coastline.This nourishment process puts back what mother nature in the form of storms and hurricanes, takes away.
"As we come into this new hurricane season, I don't think there is a time we have ever been in better shape," Alan Robertson, principal AWR Strategic consultant, said. It has been five years since the beaches of Tybee were renourished, or refilled, with sand. The beach erodes a little every day, and without renourishment projects, consultant Alan Robertson says Tybee would look how it did decades ago, with the high tide reaching where residential homes are and where tourists walk around and enjoy.
"The beach you see here is 50 years of beach nourishment every six or seven years, they take sand from what's called a borrow site about a mile east of the pier," Robertson stated.The erosion affects different parts of the beach and has caused the city to have to move sidewalks and crosswalks back to avoid tourists being affected by high tide."As you head south, particularly at the middle, around second and third street, that's the infamous turn on Butler.
That is our erosion point of the beach. We've had to bring some of those public crossovers back because the high tide is reaching them. You have some significant scarp erosion of the dunes there, and then on the south end, you get more accretion, some erosion around the pier," Robertson says.
As far as the hurricane season, Robertson says the beach is in good shape and have things in place to protect homes and roads from flooding, such as dunes and water barriers."If we get a big storm during the season, those dunes will scarp. But that takes the surge pressure away.
So, you may lose the dune, but you won't get flooding inland. That's the whole point. I've had people say, oh, you know, you doing didn't work because, look, it's gone.
No, that that that's the point. And we can readily rebuild dunes. That's nature-based infrastructure," Robertson said.
In the next four years, with the new technology the city has implemented, they won't have to wait to fill in eroded spots."We have the data. We actually know where the beach is eroding, where it's accreting, and by how much.
And after four years of data, we can start to project what that's going to look like. Very valuable. What we find are hot spots like hot spots where the beach is growing, and hot spots where it's eroding," Robertson said.
Now, the project will start at the end of 2026, and it will take about two to three months to complete. The good news is the beach will still be open, and we will keep you updated when dredging starts..
