Improvements for Little River Inlet South Carolina. Hydraulic Model Investigation.

Little River Inlet, located near the State border of North and South Carolina, is part of the 'Grand Strand,' a rapidly growing resort area along South Carolina's northeast shore. The inlet is a natural channel through the coastal barrier beach that conducts tidal flows between the Atlantic Ocean, inner channels, and a lagoon approximately 6 square miles in size. The inlet also provides a restricted passage for small-craft navigation from the ocean to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) and to private and commercial docking facilities. Improvements for the inlet were authorized on 12 October 1972 and included two jetties, sand transition dikes connecting the structures to the shore, a 300-ft-wide by 12-ft-deep entrance channel through the offshore bar, and a 90-ft-wide by 10-ft-deep inner channel from the entrance channel to the AIWW. A model study was performed to aid in preconstruction planning and design of the structures and included an investigation of items such as optimum alignment, length and spacing of the jetties, current patterns and magnitudes, sediment movement patterns, effects on the tidal prism, and effects on bay salinities.