The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACE) project to dredge channels at the N.C. Port in Morehead City and place the dredged sand on the strand in Atlantic Beach is still underway.
Atlantic Beach Town Manager John O’Daniel said this week the nourishment project is expected to continue until May 20.
Marinex Construction Inc., a contractor for the ACE, began dredging the Morehead City inner ocean bar at the state port in January.
“Contractors are now placing sand west of the Oceanana Pier,” O’Daniel said. The contract called for “beach quality” sand.
Dredging the inner ocean bar is intended to keep one of North Carolina’s two deepwater ports – the other is in Wilmington – open for shipping.
This project also features the corps’ “beneficial use” program,” which allows the contractor to place the beach compatible sand from the dredging effort on Atlantic Beach to help with coastal storm risk mitigation at no cost to the town. The town has benefited from the program for many years.
The port work consists of maintenance dredging of the Morehead City harbor that the federal navigation channel reaches, including the cutoff, range A, range B and range C.
When it began, the estimated quantity of material to be dredged, including allowable over-depth, was approximately 800,000 cubic yards.
The sand is piped to the beach then spread with heavy equipment.
The Carteret County Shore Protection Office, led by Manager Ryan Davenport, worked with ACE for months to get the project started.
Town officials welcome the sand because it replaces beach width lost to erosion, this year in time for hurricane season.
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