Posted on June 28, 2021
EMERALD ISLE — The Carteret County Beach Commission will consider endorsing an application for a U.S. Department of Defense grant for nourishment at Radio Island, in connection to a dredging project for east Taylor’s Creek, when it meets Monday in Emerald Isle.
The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. in the town commission meeting room on Highway 58 and virtually via Zoom.
Greg Rudolph, manager of the County Shore Protection Office, said several years ago the county began planning a project to dredge and realign east Taylor’s Creek to match the rest of the creek along the Beaufort waterfront.
In 2020, he said, the county obtained a major Coastal Area Management Act permit for the work, with a plan to remove around 36,000 cubic yards of material and place it upland at the Atlantic Veneer property on Lennoxville Road. However, Mr. Rudolph said in a memo this week to the beach commission, “hurricanes Florence in 2018 and Dorian in 2019 punctuated gradual shoreline erosion occurring at Radio Island, severely narrowing the beach at the tremendously popular county-operated Radio Island Beach Access.”
Erosion also compromised Marine Road, which the U.S. Navy uses for its operations, and impacted a series of power poles that serve the land craft utility ramp at the bulkhead, he continued.
As a result, “We recently pivoted our disposal zone from the Atlantic Veneer property to Radio Island, as this stretch of sandy estuarine shoreline represents a much more beneficial landing area for the dredged material,” Mr. Rudolph said in the memo.
The material will be placed roughly from Old Town Yacht Club southward, parallel to Marine Road to the land craft utility ramp and bulkhead, roughly 2,800 linear feet.
The new location for the dredged material also allows the county to use a different kind of dredge, which should lower the cost and reduce the time the project takes to complete.
The county already had a grant from the N.C. Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund Grant, which provides $2 for every $1 of non-state money used on such efforts.
“Our maximum cost estimate is $1,950,000, equating to a $1,300,000 Shallow Draft grant cost and a $650,000 non-State apportionment,” Mr. Rudolph wrote in his memo to the commission.
In addition, the county hopes to get a DOD grant under the Defense Community Infrastructure Program to serve as the non-state share. Applications are due Monday, July 12, so Mr. Rudolph will ask the commission Monday to adopt a resolution in support of the $650,000 grant application.
Last year, he said the DOD issued 16 such grants, totaling $50 million, and the selection criteria include quality of life enhancement for military families, military value and resiliency improvements for military installations.
“Nourishing and protecting the Island Beach Access is directly linear to supporting a quality of life asset and the protection of Marine Road that will also result from our proposed project easily checks the other two boxes – military value and installation resilience,” he added in the memo.
To join the beach commission meeting via Zoom, visit carteretcountync.zoom.us/j/84614206791?pwd=QUhYeE01djliekdUcE4vTHFUK2VKZz09.
