Posted on February 28, 2022
EMERALD ISLE — Carteret County has secured the necessary state permit to dredge east Taylors Creek in Beaufort and use the sand to nourish a portion of the shore of nearby Radio Island.
Doug Huggett of the county’s beach engineering firm, Moffatt & Nichol, made the announcement Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Huggett was speaking during a session organized by Carteret County Shore Protection Office manager Ryan Davenport to tell local government officials about the work of his office and the county beach commission. The meeting was in the Emerald Isle commissioners’ boardroom and online via Zoom.
After explaining some of the county’s past dredging projects, Mr. Huggett moved on to the east Taylors Creek/Radio Island project and said the permit has been obtained from the state Division of Coastal Management and “dredging will start in the next month.”
The county has been planning the Taylors Creek/Radio Island project for several years. Initially, the idea was to dredge and realign east Taylors Creek to match the rest of the creek, along the Beaufort waterfront, and to deposit the spoils on the Atlantic Veneer property on Lennoxville Road in Beaufort.
However, Hurricane Florence in 2018 caused severe erosion along parts of Radio Island, so then-Carteret County Shore Protection manager Greg Rudolph changed the plan last year to place the dredged material along Marine Road, which the U.S. Navy uses, and where erosion threatens two power poles.
“Radio Island was starting to erode away,” Mr. Huggett said during the session Thursday. “This should be pretty good sand” to protect the road and widen the popular recreational beach.
The spoils are to be spread roughly from Old Town Yacht Club southward, parallel to Marine Road, to the Landing Craft Utility Ramp and bulkhead, approximately 2,800 linear feet in length.
County officials opened two bids for the project Dec. 15 in Beaufort, and the lower of the two was from T.D. Eure Marine Construction of Beaufort, at $1.575 million. The county has $1.965 million in hand for the project, including $1.3 million from the N.C. Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund and $650,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Typically, the state fund pays two-thirds of the cost for such projects, and the local government provides a one-third match. The federal grant is for the county’s one-third share.
The work must be finished by an April 1 environmental deadline, which is primarily intended to protect sea turtles that begin arriving in area waters in the spring.
