Posted on May 12, 2022
Coastal Dredging LLC of Sneads Ferry began work Monday to dredge the channel to and from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission boat launching facility east of the Emerald Isle Town Hall off Highway 58.
According to town officials, the work is expected to last about 10 days. The contractor will try to keep the boat ramps open to the public, but some disruptions could occur.
The boat ramp is the property of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and is open 24 hours a day, year-round to boaters, at no cost to the boaters.
The $90,000 dredging project is fully funded by a grant from the N.C. Shallow Draft Inlet and Aquatic Weed Fund, which receives revenue from boat motor fuel taxes, so no Emerald Isle tax money is being spent.
Coastal Dredging LCC was the lower of the two bidders. The other bid, from Brooks Dredging and Marin of Harkers Island, was $136,880.
The town had estimated the cost of the project at $90,000.
The project will remove 995 cubic yards of material from the channel, from the WRC launch basin to about channel marker 28. The water farther into the Bogue Sound and out to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway is still deep enough and won’t be dredged.
A bucket dredge is loading the dredged material onto a barge, which will take it to shore to be hauled away and disposed of at a permitted site.
The town and boaters say the work is necessary because chronic shoaling is creating a boat-and-trailer logjam as boaters encounter shallow water leaving and returning to the facility.
The launch includes four launching ramps and parking for 112 vehicle/ trailer combinations and a separate parking lot with 18 single-vehicle spaces.
