Public weighs in on Buxton Jetty Repair Project at Sept. 3 meeting

By Island Free Press on September 4, 2025

By: Joy Crist | Island Free Press

Roughly 70 residents and stakeholders gathered in Buxton on Wednesday, September 3, to weigh in on a proposal to repair the community’s southernmost groin, also known as a jetty, as part of a larger shoreline protection effort.  The meeting, hosted by the National Park Service (NPS), was attended by county officials, the Buxton Civic Association (BCA), Coastal Science & Engineering (CSE), County Manager Bobby Outten, and N.C. Division of Coastal Management Director Tancred Miller.

“There are two messages to take home,” said Hallac at the end of a meeting that included presentations by the NPS and CSE, as well as questions from attendees. “One is that we’re working together as a team on this. As a matter of fact, we’re having frequent calls with the Army Corps of Engineers, one of the permitting agencies, [N.C.] Coastal Management, and Dare County consultants to make sure that we’re doing this as efficiently as possible.  “The second take-home message is, do not forget to send us your comments.”

Public comments were accepted in person at Wednesday’s meeting, and comments can also be submitted online via the NPS website. Comments will be accepted until September 29, 2025.

 

A Long History of Erosion and Intervention

Hallac opened the meeting with a review of Buxton’s history of shoreline erosion and stabilization efforts. He noted that Buxton’s shoreline has been retreating for centuries, long before recent storms or modern development.

“This section of Hatteras Island has been eroding for a long, long time, well before groins were built, long before inlet dredging, long before a terminal groin was built at the north end of Hatteras Island, and long before climate change or sea level rise,” Hallac said.

The first significant stabilization projects came in the 1960s, when sand was pumped onto Buxton’s beaches from borrow areas near Canadian Hole.

“You probably are well aware that the area that’s sometimes called Canadian Hole is also called the Haulover. That’s because sand was brought over from that location, [but] that that sediment didn’t fare very well when it was placed on the beach, starting in the late 1960s,” said Hallac.

In 1969-70, the U.S. Navy, which had a military base in the immediate area, constructed three groins south of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to slow sand loss. The groins, placed near the then-oceanfront Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, were intended to trap sand and build up the beach.

However, maintenance of the structures was a constant challenge. The groins began to fail within years of their construction and were repeatedly repaired with steel sheet piling, asphalt rubble, sandbags, and other materials through the 1980s and 1990s. Despite these efforts, the shoreline continued to retreat until the lighthouse itself was relocated inland in 1999.

Since that time, Buxton has relied primarily on beach nourishment to fight erosion. The 2017 project, which pumped nearly 3 million cubic yards of sand onto the oceanfront, initially built a wide, protective beach. But by 2022, much of that sand had disappeared, prompting a smaller follow-up nourishment effort that summer.

Another project is slated for 2026, with 2 million cubic yards of sand scheduled for placement in Buxton and another 1 million in Avon.

“Buxton is arguably one of the most challenging coastal environments to manage anywhere on the East Coast,” Hallac said, adding that while the island has always been dynamic, modern development and the need to protect Highway 12 have made stabilization projects essential.

 

Jetty Repair Proposal

CSE engineers explained that the current proposal focuses on repairing the southernmost groin, which remains the most intact of the three. The work would involve driving new steel sheet piles, adding armor stone for scour protection, and capping exposed sections to reduce hazards, and to make the site more aesthetically pleasing.

Currently, the more than 50-year-old jetty shows ample wear and tear, with corriosion on the sequence of metal sheets, and deep holes cut under the water’s surface, where any accumulated sand in the immediate area easily escapes.

“We’re looking at about 640 feet of repairs, focused only on that southern groin,” said CSE President Steven Traynum. “We’ll be using steel sheet pile, adding scour protection, and trying to clean up decades of rubble and debris. The goal is to restore functionality without expanding beyond the original footprint.”

The repair would take roughly 1–2 months and is expected to be scheduled for late summer, when seas are calmer but before the peak of hurricane season.

Outten emphasized that the project will not end erosion but will reduce it. “You might think once we fix the groin all the problems are supposed to go away. That isn’t the case,” he said. “It slows the erosion rate, it makes our sand last longer, and it makes our money go further.”

Estimates place the cost of the repair at $2–4 million. The combined budget for both the nourishment and the jetty work is roughly $45–50 million.

 

Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Repairing the groin is possible because of North Carolina’s “50% rule,” which allows maintenance of existing hardened structures if less than half of the original structure still exists. Otherwise, state law prohibits new hardened shoreline structures such as jetties, groins, and seawalls.

For now, Dare County is seeking to repair only the southernmost groin as a test case. “If it proves successful, maybe there’s an option in the long term to look at repairs to the other groins,” Traynum said.

County Commissioners, however, stressed that broader fixes may require a change in state law. “We need to lobby the state legislature,” said Commissioner Carson Creef. “That way we can fix it permanently, instead of throwing taxpayer money at it year after year.”

Chairman Bob Woodard added that residents will need to play a visible role in Raleigh to make a law change come to fruition.

“When the state tried to ban shrimp trawling, the industry showed up in force — tractor trailers circling the Capitol, 1,000 people on site. That’s what it takes,” Woodard said. “We can talk all day long as commissioners, but when you show up, they’re going to listen to you more than us.”

 

Next Steps

Outten explained that while permitting for a groin repair typically takes three years, this project has been expedited. “We condensed that permitting time into 18 months or less. Nobody is holding up the permits — everybody is going wide open,” he said.

If approvals come through on schedule, beach nourishment will begin in early summer 2026, with groin repair following soon after or potentially overlapping.

Residents at the meeting voiced both urgency and concern. “Up until 2015, this whole section was still standing, but since then it’s collapsed quickly,” said surfer and local resident Brett Barley. “The jetty falling apart and the sand disappearing are clearly connected. If we don’t repair it, the nourishment won’t last.”

Others noted the broader stakes. “If we lose Highway 12, we lose access to everything south of Buxton,” Outten warned. “We can’t take that risk.”

While there is no guarantee of long-term success, officials stressed that the repair is a critical step to protecting Buxton’s shoreline, homes, and infrastructure.

“This isn’t a silver bullet,” Hallac concluded. “But it’s an important tool to reduce erosion and buy us more time.”

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