Posted on May 2, 2017
By Tim Buckland, StarNews Online
A project to dredge Carolina Beach Lake to a depth of 6 to 8 feet to accommodate more stormwater runoff has been slightly stalled while contractors look for the best way to remove material from the lake’s bottom.
Town Manager Michael Cramer said the project, when finished, should result in a cleaner lake that prevents flooding. The lake’s depth is being increased from about 18 inches — on Thursday birds perched on mounds of dirt in shallower parts of the lake — to greater depths to hold more rain.
“It will stop flooding from this (section) of the town,” he said. “We’ll have somewhere for water to go other than streets and people’s yards.”
Cramer said the project is about 45 days behind schedule while contractors for the $2.7-million project determine the best way to remove material from the 11-acre lake. Methods like those used for beach nourishment, which involve pumping sand from a body of water’s bottom to the shore, may not work because there’s nowhere to put the material on the lake’s shore.
So contractors are experimenting with other methods, including dredging with a barge and storing material in a cofferdam until it dries and can be transported.
“The reason they’re trying different ways of doing it is to make it easier, faster and less costly for us to do the project,” Cramer said. “What we’ve been doing for the last six weeks is figuring out the best way to do it faster, cheaper and easier.”
In addition to more room for water, the lake’s depth will mean that aerators and fountains can be run to keep the lake cleaner of the kind of algae blooms and vegetation that grow in a shallow, stagnant body of water.
“Because it’s been so low … those pumps and aerators can’t work properly,” Cramer said. The vegetation “is an eyesore and it’s vegetation that’s breaking down and decomposing, so it smells.”
The town’s original plan was to begin in spring, take a break in summer so residents and tourists could enjoy the lake — its walkway is partly blocked because of the project — and resume work in the fall to be completed in December, Cramer said.
That plan may be altered — keeping the walkway closed in the summer — if the contractor determines it needs the time to get the project completed by the end of the year, he said.
Source: StarNews Online
