Folly Beach Feasibility Study

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft Integrated General Reevaluation Report and Environmental Assessment for the City of Folly Beach and its barrier island on October 30th, 2020. The study presents a proposed recommended plan for coastal storm risk management project with continued federal participation for a period of 50 years of cost-shared renourishments.

On behalf of Charleston District, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District is reevaluating what can be done to provide recommendations for long-term coastal storm risk management. The study is revaluating the existing 50-year project on Folly Beach, which suffered damages in recent major storm events. The study will determine if a new 50-year project is warranted to replace the current project, for which federal participation ends in 2043. A new project, if approved and authorized, would supersede the existing project. 

This 100% federally funded study is evaluating alternatives, both structural and non-structural, while providing a holistic approach to shoreline erosion, wave damage and coastal storm surge based on engineering, economic, and environmental analyses. The Corps is also evaluating potential sea level rise over the next 50 years and ensuring that there is enough beach-quality sand available to provide renourishment over that same time period. The study is being completed now and not at the end of the current 50-year authorization because a new project, if approved and authorized, would supersede the existing project.

Contact

The comment period for the Folly Beach Feasibility Study report has closed.

To contact the project managers, please reach out to folly-beach-study@usace.army.mil