Posted on September 4, 2017
It’s being called an innovative type of dredging in Carolina Beach and the first of its kind in North Carolina.
The Army Corps of Engineers dug and sifted through water, sand and silt in the Carolina Beach Inlet Friday on the vessel Murden. They then dropped the sand in a 25 foot hole within the inlet instead of farther down off Freeman Park, like was previously done. The project is expected to take three days.
According to New Hanover County Engineer Jim Iannucci, the new process moves 30 percent more sand in the same amount of time. This is the first time permits have let them to dump sand into disposal areas of the inlet.
“As they filled up we only had to move a short distance to be able to dump the sand so that was kind of a first and that’s the reason why we’re doing this three day trial to do that work and it’s been really a bonus to do that without having to steam way down the beach and dump the sand off at Freeman Park so that’s definitely been a bonus of this particular job,” he said.
This is the first shallow draft inlet in North Carolina dumping sand in a disposal area within the same inlet it dug it out of. New Hanover County is providing close to $80,00 for a new type of dredging happening in the Carolina Beach Inlet.
Iannucci said the county has been allocating money in its budget towards dredging for years now, and plans to in the future as well. He said it is vital for boaters’ safety to keep the waters at least eight feet deep, something the dredging takes care of.
According to Jim Medlock, Wilmington Shallow Draft Navigation Program Project Manager, boater safety isn’t the only benefit to the dredging. It helps the environment too.
“Sand is a valuable resource and we need to find ways to put sand on our shorelines in the most efficient effective and cost efficient ways and this is one way we can help by doing that,” Medlock said.
Medlock said the dredging is done about four times a year because after about three months, sand builds back up again and it can be difficult for people to get to and from the Atlantic Ocean through the intercoastal waterway. Therefore, the Murden, and three other dredging boats, go out into the waterway periodically to do “maintenance,” as Captain Barry Stull called it.
Water, sand and silt is collected in the bin on the boat. Sand settles to the bottom and the water rises to the top. The sand is then filtered out and disposed of.
The sand dumped into the 25 foot hole Friday will be used for beach nourishment at Carolina Beach in the future, Medlock said.
“It’s a really great effective way of doing it because normally we’d be taking material out it by the shoreline and disposing,” he said.
Captain Stull said he only has one regret from the project.
“God is working 24 hours a day to fill in the inlets and we only get to work 12 to clean them up,” he said.
Source: WECT 6
