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The 300-foot-long Lands End groin in Sea Pines was installed in the mid- to late-1970s to help stabilize the beach by preventing sand from drifting into Calibogue Sound. It also helped keep the sand from clogging Braddock Cove, the waterway leading to South Beach and Gull Point marinas.
But it's seen much better days.
The groin, where it still stands, is riddled with gaps that allow sand to pass through. Other parts of it have collapsed.
The town plans to "encrust" the dilapidated structure with boulders, increasing the height by about two feet so it no longer will be breached at high tide, said director of public projects Scott Liggett. A membrane will be added to prevent sand from moving through.
Town officials received the last major permit required for construction last week. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project after having the application for seven months.
Work should begin this fall and will cost about $750,000, according to Liggett. It will be funded by the town's 2 percent beach-preservation fee levied on overnight lodging.
Liggett said he's happy the project is finally moving forward.
"We've all just been in a holding pattern," he said.
The state first approved the plan in December 2007, but a resident who lives next to the groin appealed the decision. She and several others in the area feared the new groin would be an eyesore.
An administrative law judge dismissed the appeal late last year.
A condition of the permit requires the town to bury the most landward portion of the groin and plant grasses and other native vegetation. The town also must complete the work outside of the nesting season of the federally protected loggerhead sea turtle, which is May through August.
Town Councilman George Williams, who moved to Sea Pines in 1995, said the old wooden groin has long outlived its usefulness.
"It's been an ongoing issue ever since I've lived here," he said. "It was great when it was built, but how long has that been? Forty years?"
A rock groin should be a permanent fixture and shouldn't require much maintenance, officials said.
Groins are used elsewhere on Hilton Head, including at the Folly, and there is a series of 17 of them along Port Royal Sound. Many people don't realize it, but South Beach has a number of older ones that have been covered by sand.
The town is designing another groin for the heel of the island near Port Royal Plantation as part of a multi-faceted approach to stave off increasingly rapid erosion. That project likely will also include pumping sand back onto the beach.
