The Central Reach Reimbursement Project (CRR) in Holden Beach, North Carolina, and the Florida Joint Nourishment Project in the three Florida municipalities, the cities of Boca Raton and Deerfield Beach and Town of Hillsboro Beach, were selected as Best Restored Beach award winners. The Best Restored Beach award project teams, which include ATM, a Geosyntec Company, will be honored during the spring 2024 American Shore & Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) Coastal Summit in Washington, D.C.
According to an ASBPA press release, “The goal of ASBPA’s annual best restored beach award is to acknowledge community beach restoration projects around the United States which increase a shoreline’s resiliency, the beach’s ability to mitigate storm damage and flooding from severe storms, and naturally allow the beach to adjust to short-term sea level rise while remaining an important part of the nearshore ecosystem. ASBPA created the annual award list to highlight the value of restored beaches. Projects are judged on three criteria: the economic and ecological benefits the beach brings to its community; short- and long-term success of the restoration project; and the challenges each community overcame during the course of the project.”
ASBPA is dedicated to preserving, protecting, and enhancing our coasts by merging science and public policy. They advocate for healthy, sustainable, and resilient coastal systems to sustain four interconnected core values provided by shores and beaches: community protection, a strong economy, ecologic health, and recreation.
About the CRR project:
The CRR in Holden Beach was selected because it demonstrates a long-term commitment by the community to nourish and renourish their beach after a series of severe storms devastated the beach from 2017 to 2022.
ATM, a Geosyntec Company, serves as the on-call coastal engineering consultant for Holden Beach and provides specialized expertise to protect and manage the shore and coastline of this small coastal-island town. ATM supports emergency storm response management, erosion control measures, mitigation projects, beach renourishment and FEMA post-storm coordination. Since 2001, ATM has provided continuous coastal engineering services, which includes field investigations, geotechnical sand-source identification and dredge planning, long-term management planning, annual beach monitoring, and environmental and permitting tasks. Additionally, ATM helped Holden Beach manage more than 20 beach nourishment projects, numerous emergency storm responses, and shore protection engineering.
About the Florida Joint Nourishment project:
The Florida Joint Nourishment project was selected because it demonstrates how the collaboration by three municipalities (the cities of Boca Raton and Deerfield Beach, and the Town of Hillsboro Beach), can result in increased and collective benefits for all parties. The construction of the projects as a single construction event allowed for the use of the Boca Raton Ebb Shoal borrow area as the sand source for all three projects. This reduced costs for all parties and increased the effectiveness of the project in maintaining navigation depth within the inlet and addressing regional erosion concerns.
ATM served as the Engineer of Record for the City of Boca Raton for this project.
More Information:
About the ASBPA Awards 2023 Best Restored Beaches press release: https://asbpa.org/2023/06/01/asbpa-awards-2023-best-restored-beaches/
About ASBPA: https://asbpa.org/about-us/
For consultation regarding beach (re)nourishment, contact Mike Jenkins, PhD, PE, at MJenkins@appliedtm.com and Fran Way, PE, CFM, at fway@appliedtm.com.
Learn more about Mike: https://geosyntec.com/people/mike-jenkins