CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. -- Emerald Isle prepares to take on its most expensive beach renourishment project to date.

• Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company from Michigan will replenish sand lost on 12 miles of ocean beaches.
• Emerald Isle lost 2.2 million cubic yards of sand to Hurricane Florence.
• Due to state regulations, some involving the nesting patterns of sea turtles, the project must be completed by April.

The town's Board of Commissioners are contracting Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company from Michigan to replenish sand lost on 12 miles of ocean beaches.

Emerald Isle lost 2.2 million cubic yards of sand to Hurricane Florence, and is asking for $56 million in funding from FEMA and the NC Division of Emergency Management to help replace it.

Due to state regulations, some involving the nesting patterns of sea turtles, the project must be completed by April.

Kyle Lagos is the general manager of Spinnaker's Reach Realty and said she is glad the project will be done before summer.

“Most of the phone calls that we get from past guests and previous vacationers is ‘what is the beach like, is the beach smaller, has it gone away?’ And so the renourishment obviously is a good way to confidently say, ‘no the beach is still here,'" said Lagos.

The project will begin after January 1, 2019.