Dredging operations are moving head at full speed along the shores of Gulf Shores for a project to “renourish” beaches in the wake of Hurricanes Nate and Sally, according to the project’s website.

The Engineered Beach Renourishment Project for Orange Beach, Gulf State Park and Gulf Shores is designed to restore dunes and vegetation to protect buildings and bird habitats from storms that blow in from the Gulf of Mexico.

“We’re offering that protection, and we’re offering an environment with the sea oats, and the dunes for nesting birds,” said Gulf Shores Emergency Management Coordinator Brandan Franklin. “It’s both environmentally friendly and economically a good thing.”

This week marks the completion of the first of 19 phases, which are all set to be finished by February 2024.

The project will use over 2 million cubic yards of sand — about 2.7 million tons — dredged from offshore to restructure dunes. The first phase used 230,000 cubic yards, or about 310,000 tons, of sand. Some dunes will be brought up to about 12 feet of elevation, and additional vegetation is being planted to help rebuild dune structures, according to a new release from Gulf Shores.

The Engineered Beach Renourishment Project for Orange Beach, Gulf State Park and Gulf Shores plans to restore dunes constructed in a 2001-2005 project but toppled by subsequent hurricanes.

“Our beaches were basically flat without any dune protection,” Franklin said. “Having that elevation and the dunes having plants there to help grow the dune system offers our first layer of protection from any kind of storm.”

Hurricanes Nate in 2017 and Sally in 2020 caused damage to those dunes, meaning they lost the height that provided protection to buildings and wildlife. The weakened dunes were further damaged during this year’s strong winter storms, according to Franklin.

“Had we gotten another storm without any kind of layer of protection from the dunes, those waves would have been breaking onto our condominiums and some of our beach houses,” Franklin said.

The first completed project phase took place Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 from the 900 block West Beach Boulevard to W. 12th Street in Gulf Shores, according to an update on the project’s website. Each phase will move “along five segments of the shoreline from Laguna Key westward to the AL/FL State Line on Perdido Key,” the project site says.

Work will take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the project is complete.