Work on Sea Pines groin finishes ahead of schedule

The Town of Hilton Head Island is nearly finished with work to revamp a groin that protects the shoreline at Lands End in Sea Pines, according to public projects director Scott Liggett.

It took three years for the town to acquire the permits necessary to begin the work at the island's toe, because a Sea Pines resident filed a lawsuit claiming the planned stone groin would be an eyesore. The town received final permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin work last summer after the appeal was resolved.

But it took just three weeks for TIC, the Savannah-based contractor doing the work, to place the boulders.

"It's almost anticlimactic," Liggett said.

The town added thousands of tons of stone to the 300-foot-long groin. It was built in the mid-1970s out of wood and concrete and had begun to crumble.

The work cost $490,000, Liggett said. The town is paying for it from its 2 percent beach-preservation fee levied on overnight lodging.

It is ready in time for sea turtle nesting season and summer vacationers, Liggett said.