BUXTON, N.C. — A complete transformation is how to describe the Buxton oceanfront just three weeks into its beach nourishment project. Water washing up against the foundation of oceanfront structures has been replaced with dozens of yards of sand.
It's a much different scene that neighbors say has brought a completely different feeling here.
"The people that have gone to bat to get this done. Ah, hallelujah! I give them kudos, and it is amazing," said Marcie Mulder, who has lived in Buxton for 32 years.
Marcie Mulder has owned the Buxton Munch restaurant with her husband for 27 years. Getting to this point with beach nourishment hasn't come without its hardships.
"The poor homeowners," Mulder said. "The economic disaster that's brought to Buxton, we've lost all those weekly rentals that held 15 to 20 people each every week, and that's all gone."
More than 585,000 cubic yards of sand have now been pumped onto the shore of the 2-million-cubic-yard project. That's more than 25% in just three weeks of work here.
"We're just all now fingers crossed and praying to God that there's no hurricanes," Mulder said. "Because, they can build all that sand up like they've done in years past, and right behind it comes a hurricane and washes it all right back out to sea."
Something that's expected to help keep this sand there is the repair of the southernmost jetty. The deterioration of it played a role in the accelerated erosion we saw in the fall and winter here that brought with it 20 house collapses.
News 3 talked with Buxton Civic Association member Jeff Dawson about the jetty repair weeks ago.
"The insurance of a jetty, I don't think I can state how important that is," said Dawson.
A breath of fresh air here in Buxton. Along with it, neighbors like Mulder hope that the path forward only brings with it more jetties and ways to stabilize the oceanfront here.
"One, we'll take it, that's a start. But one's not going to get it. We need at least two, three more would be even better," said Mulder.
The beach nourishment started at the end of July, and the project is expected to last 90 days. The jetty repair project is a little different. Crews will be expected to repair at least 450 feet of it by the end of the year but will have until June to complete the roughly 650 feet total of repairs.
The jetty repair project has recently started, and Dare County told News 3 the current status of everything on Thursday.
"The contractor's started to mobilize their equipment a few weeks back. While waiting for the bigger armor stones to arrive, the contractor began to remove the old sheet piles that have been buried in the sand. Yesterday, the larger armor stone started to arrive on site. Once the stones arrive and the trestle is built, the contractor will begin to remove the seaward portions of old material and begin to place new materials in the approved template."
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