For the fifth time in 36 years, Hilton Head Island is renourishing its famously beautiful beaches in a $47-million project that calls for specialized contractors, specialized equipment and a very specific timeline. The operation is critical to maintaining the health of the shoreline and the habitat it provides, said Jeff Netzinger, Hilton Head's engineering and projects director.
"There are permit windows associated with the federal and state permits that have to do specifically with protecting endangered species like nesting turtles and migratory seabirds," Netzinger told Construction Equipment Guide. "Certain micro-habitats exist on some of our beaches where the conditions are perfect for these migratory birds and the beach renourishment program actually increases the amount of habitat for both the turtles to lay eggs and sea birds to rest. They started nourishing the first beach in September 2025 and the permit window closes at the end of May. They have to be completely done with the project by the end of May."
Foth/Olson Hilton Head Island photo
The timeframe is not the only challenge. Extreme weather can shut down the job, and the harsh conditions, salt water and sand call for constant maintenance.
"It's high maintenance equipment, so there's a lot of downtime to maintain and deal with because when you're pumping the sand from an offshore shoal that's six to seven miles away and pushing all that slurry through a pipe that's anywhere between three to nine to 10 miles long, and then pumping that slurry out on the beach and moving all that sand around with construction equipment on the beach, it's a pretty major operation."
The need for the renourishment is determined through ongoing monitoring that takes a survey of cross sections of the beach every five to 700 ft. along the 17 mi. of managed or engineered beach, Netzinger said.
"We keep track of it over time and then when we get to the point where we feel like it's necessary to renourish according to criteria that we have established in our policy, drop the hammer, bid the contract and award it," he said.
The current Hilton Head renourishment program will dredge and transport 2.2 million cu. yds. of sand "from up to four offshore borrow areas along about 46,500 ft. of Atlantic Ocean and Port Royal Sound shorefront, broken into five discrete reaches of the island shorefront," according to the Beach Nourishment Project 2025-26 website.
Foth/Olson Hilton Head Island photo
Once the mix of sand and seawater is piped to shore, the seawater returns to the ocean. Bulldozers and other heavy equipment are used to construct the elevation and form of the beach with new sand. The work takes place in 1,000-ft. increments along the shoreline, impacting just roughly 2 percent of the beach at any given time throughout the operation.
"It's a moving operation," Netziner said. "It moves 300 to 400 feet a day, every day when it's working. They keep a perimeter around the active work zone. They're constantly moving the safety fencing, and they have people 24/7 that are responsible for safety and security of the site while people are working. There's always a safety officer on duty at all hours of the day."
Only a handful of contractors are capable of doing this work on the Eastern Seaboard, and those who do the work are protected by federal legislation, Netzinger said. The Foreign Dredge Act of 1906 restricts foreign companies from doing the work and in order for domestic companies to qualify for the jobs, contractors must have a U.S. Coast Guard-certified dredge with the capacity to move the massive amounts of sand necessary.
"As far as I know, there's only four or five companies that could even qualify to do the work," Netzinger said.
The 2025-2026 Beach Renourishment Project contract was awarded to MarineX Construction Inc., a family operation headquartered in Charleston, S.C., and in business since 1991. The project is so specialized, companies must build their own dredges, Tyler Stubbs, MarineX senior project manager, told Construction Equipment Guide.
Foth/Olson Hilton Head Island photo
"Offshore big dredges are pretty rare, but each of the companies have some of them," Stubbs said. "The kicker is no one makes them. A shipyard could build something like that, but you have to figure it out on your own. We make ours in house."
The dredge being used on Hilton Head is a hydraulic cutter suction dredge, "about 250-feet long and 55-feet wide," Stubbs said.
It's pulled onto location by a tug. "Then, an array of ocean anchors allows the dredge to move around — like a big crab out there." CEG
