Posted on August 2, 2020
PINE KNOLL SHORES — The planting of vegetation to help stabilize new dunes created in the Bogue Banks beach nourishment project completed this spring is finished.
Greg Rudolph, manager of the Carteret County Shore Protection Office, said Tuesday workers from Coastal Transplants of Bolivia, working as a subcontractor under total nourishment project contractor Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. of Illinois, planted the last sea oats Monday afternoon, fertilized them and watered them in western Pine Knoll Shores, near the boundary with Indian Beach.
That, Mr. Rudolph said, “put the finishing touches” on about 9.5 miles of planning in western Atlantic Beach, all of Pine Knoll Shores, a small portion of Salter Path and a big chunk of western Emerald Isle.
The total project cost, including the dredging and the planting of vegetation, was $28.2 million, with funds coming from a $15 million state contribution and $13 million from the county’s beach nourishment fund, which receives half the proceeds from the occupancy tax.
Mr. Rudolph called the now completed project “a smashing success” and praised Coastal Transplants for finishing quickly despite sometimes brutal heat and periods of heavy rain last month.
The company planted the tops of the dunes using a mechanical planting machine, but planted vegetation on the dune slopes in a labor-intensive hand-planting process.
Completion of the planting means oceanfront property owners can put up sand fences, which trap sand and help grow the dunes. However, Mr. Rudolph reminded those oceanfront property owners to check with local Coastal Area Management Act permit officers before proceeding. To do that, owners should call their respective town halls.
The nourishment project put 522,000 cubic yards of sand in Atlantic Beach west of The Circle development district, 990,000 cubic yards in all of Pine Knoll Shores, 145,000 cubic yards at Salter Path’s beach access site and 345,000 cubic yard in western Emerald Isle from Sea Dunes to the Land’s End. It ended in late April, and the planting process began shortly thereafter, resulting in placement of about 700,000 sea oat and bitter panicum plants.
The whole project was known as phase two of the post-Hurricane Florence nourishment project. The September 2018 storm stripped about 3.6 million cubic yards of sand from Bogue Banks beaches, according to the county’s beach engineering firm, Moffatt & Nichol. Phase one of the project covered eastern Emerald Isle, all of Indian Beach and most of Salter Path at a cost of more than $20 million.
Phase three, which will cover the rest of western Emerald Isle, plus central Emerald Isle and likely some erosion “hot-spots” in eastern Emerald Isle, is already planned, and Mr. Rudolph’s office hopes to open bids Thursday in Emerald Isle.
If three bids are received, they can be opened, but if one or two bids come in, they can’t be opened under state law and the county will have to readvertise. Mr. Rudolph said Tuesday he’s confident there will be at least two bids.
The bid opening Thursday is set for 4:30 p.m. in the Emerald Isle Board of Commissioners’ meeting room beside the police department on the north side of Highway 58. Those who want to hear it can attend, with adequate social distancing, or can listen by dialing 1-415-655-0001 and entering access code 160 828 6746 when prompted.
Mr. Rudolph has estimated phase three could cost as much as $45 million. Although the length of beach to be covered and the amount of sand to be discharged is similar to that of $28.2-million phase two, it’s farther away from the sand dredge site off Atlantic Beach. so it costs more to move the material.
He believes, however, the bids will come in significantly below the $45 million maximum estimate. Much of the money would come from funds the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reimbursed the towns for the sand lost during Florence.
The project is to begin late this year or early in 2021.
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email Brad@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.
Source: carolinacoastonline
