Posted on June 12, 2018
By Lee Hinnant, stateportpilot.com
With slightly more than a week of work done, the dredging and beach-grooming crews are in the vicinity of the 600 block of Caswell Beach Road with fresh sand dredged from the shipping channel.
Eric Price, spokesman for Weeks Marine Inc., said last week Tuesday a mechanical problem on the dredge stalled operations for about 36 hours, but sand started flowing later in the day.
About 30 crew members are aboard the C.R. McCaskill, a 230-foot dredge with a 30-inch cutter suction head that will eventually pipe 1.14-million cubic yards of sand onto Caswell Beach and part of Oak Island. Price said another 15 workers are on the beach moving the pipes and grooming the sand with heavy equipment to create an initial berm about 100 feet wide.
Because it is accreting sand, the 400 block of Caswell Beach Road won’t receive additional sand from the project. Areas west of the 500 block, including Oak Island, will receive a berm between 100 and 130 feet wide. The work is scheduled to end about SE 63rd Street at Oak Island and crews are required to be off the beach by August 28 at the latest.
The dredging work is usually done in the winter, but extreme shoaling in the shipping channel between Caswell Beach and Bald Head Island led regulators to approve the work for one time only this spring and summer. Warmer months are usually off-limits for beach projects because of their potential to harm nesting sea turtles and other marine life. In this case, trained monitors are working around the clock to move turtle nests out of the way and keep a watch for the threatened reptiles, should they approach the work area.
About 1,000 feet of beach will be fenced off to the public as sand is pumped and pushed. As workers finish in one spot, they’ll pick up and move west until the job is finished, so they are not expected to affect the same area every day.
Beach-goers are asked to stay off the pipeline except at designated crossings. A portion of the Caswell Beach public parking area in the 700 block of Caswell Beach Road has been closed for use by the contractor.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the work, has developed a sophisticated, interactive map that shows the progress of the dredging, along with details about nearby public access areas.
To view the splash page, visit www.saw.usace.army.mil. The map is available by clicking in the top right-hand corner.
Source: stateportpilot.com
