Posted on June 20, 2022
Dredging efforts have begun at Bigfoot Slough, just off the North Carolina Ferry Division’s Ocracoke-Silver Lake terminal, to help recover shoaling that’s been there.
Sholing was the main reason for the decrease In designated ferries on the Swan Quarter-Ocracoke and Cedar Island-Ocracoke routes.
The state Department of Transportation says the dredging operation, led by Dredge Merritt of the US Army Corps of Engineers, is expected to take between seven and ten days, depending on weather and sea conditions.
The department is confident that the operation will help create a deeper, wider channel that will lead to the return of large sound class ferries for the North Carolina Ferry System’s two longest routes.
We have been told that once the Channel is deemed safe, the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes will resume their entire summer schedule.
