BEACH FILL AND SEDIMENT TRAP AT 

 CAROLINA BEACH, NORTH CAROLINA 



PART I: INTRODUCTION 

 Project History 



1. Carolina Beach, North Carolina, is located approximately 15 miles* 

 south-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, on a peninsula which separates 

 the lower Cape Fear River Estuary from the Atlantic Ocean as shown in Fig- 

 ure 1. During October 1962, Congress authorized the construction of a beach 

 erosion control-hurricane wave protection project along approximately 



26,000 ft of ocean shoreline beginning at the northern town limits of Carolina 

 Beach and extending south to the southern town limits of Kure Beach. In April 

 1965, 14,000 lineal feet of the project, lying within the town limits of Caro- 

 lina Beach, were constructed while the southern segment of the authorized 

 project was placed in a deferred category due to the inability of local in- 

 terests to finance their part of the project's cost. The authorized project 

 consisted of a beach fill placed in the form of a 25-ft-wide dune with a crest 

 elevation of 13.5** fronted by a 50-ft-wide storm berm at el 10.5 as shown in 

 Figure 2. This report documents and evaluates the performance of the Carolina 

 Beach project and describes in detail the results of a monitoring program con- 

 ducted between April 1 98 1 and September 1984 under the auspices of the Corps 

 of Engineers' Monitoring Completed Coastal Projects (MCCP) Program. 



2. Carolina Beach began to experience problems along its shoreline in 

 the early 1950' s partly due to the passage of severe hurricanes over the area 

 but, more importantly, as a direct result of the artificial opening of Caro- 

 lina Beach Inlet. On 15 October 1954, Hurricane Hazel affected the entire 

 southeastern section of North Carolina and produced the maximum observed water 

 level at Carolina Beach of el +11.2. During Hurricane Hazel, Carolina Beach, 

 which has natural ground elevations ranging from a maximum of el +10 along the 

 oceanfront to el +4 along the sound shore, was completely inundated by the 



* A table of factors for converting non-SI units of measurement to SI 

 (metric) units is presented on page 3. 

 ** All elevations (el) cited herein are in feet referred to the National Geo- 

 detic Vertical Datum (NGVD) . 



