Posted on August 17, 2021
EMERALD ISLE — Emerald Isle commissioners Tuesday night quickly authorized town manager Matt Zapp to sign a contract for dredging the channel at the Kelly Lane boat ramp on Bogue Sound.
The motion came during a board of commissioners meeting Tuesday in the town hall boardroom off Highway 58.
Mr. Zapp told the board the low bidder for the project was Coastal Dredging LLC of Sneads Ferry at $54,155.
The town received a state grant authorizing the project at a cost not to exceed $82,500. The grant pays two-thirds of the cost, or as much as $54,750 were it not for the lower-than-expected bid. That means the town’s maximum share would have been $27,375.
Instead, with the low bid, the grant provides $35,742, so the town’s share is $18,413, Mr. Zapp said in an email Wednesday.
Last week, he called the Kelly Lane facility “a critical piece of waterway infrastructure for the entire area” and noted the channel hadn’t been dredged since 2006.
The plan is to dredge approximately 998 cubic yards of material from the channel, which many boaters use as an alternative to the often packed Emerald Isle/N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission boat launching facility 6,500 feet west of Kelly Lane.
The state money is from the N.C. Shallow Draft Navigation and Aquatic Weed Fund, which gets its revenue from boat registration fees and the marine fuel excise tax.
Commissioner Steve Finch made the motion to approve the contract with Coastal Dredging, and there was no discussion before the 5-0 vote.
The Kelly Lane channel is about 3,000 feet long, runs generally east to west and connects to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The channel will be dredged via a bucket dredge boat and barge to a depth of 4 feet below normal water level.
The Carteret County Shore Protection Office helped Emerald Isle get the grant.
