Posted on March 22, 2020
PINE KNOLL SHORES — The Ellis Island, the largest hopper dredge in the United States, is scheduled to join the Bogue Banks beach nourishment project Thursday, and the smaller dredge, the Liberty Island, might stay on the job in an effort to hasten completion.
Greg Rudolph, manager of the Carteret County Shore Protection office in Emerald Isle, said in an email Monday he contacted the corporate office of the contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. of Illinois, to request both vessels work in tandem to compete the project earlier than the Thursday, April 30 deadline. The Liberty Island, under the original plan, is set to move on to a project in Virginia shortly after the Ellis Island arrives.
“Our thinking is this would diminish the COVID-19 risk for Great Lakes (and us) by having all assets here in Carteret County working rather than spread across the Mid-Atlantic, both water and land crews,” Mr. Rudolph wrote.
“Great Lakes could complete our … project in a matter of a few weeks, demobilize, leave safely, invoice us for the sand delivered, and everyone would be happy compared to the alternative, I guess of sitting on pins and needles hoping the Ellis Island can get us to the finish line by (Thursday) April 23 or 30, the regulatory deadline,” he continued.
Mr. Rudolph said, “there a lot of logistics involved that Great Lakes has to evaluate, which they are doing now.”
He said he hopes to get an answer from the company within days.
The Liberty Island has a capacity of about 6,500 cubic yards of sand, while the Ellis Island’s capacity is about 15,000 cubic yards.
Meanwhile, the $2.8 million project is chugging along in Pine Knoll Shores after completing the nourishment of the strand in western Atlantic Beach.
The dredge is now working off a pipeline landing close to the Iron Steamer Pier Beach Access and is moving east to tie back into an already completed section. Once that is done, work will move west through Pine Knoll Shores.
Atlantic Beach, west of The Circle development district, received 522,000 cubic yards of sand. Pine Knoll Shores is to get 990,000 cubic yards, the beach access in Salter Path is to get 145,000 cubic yards and Emerald Isle, roughly from the Land’s End clubhouse to just east of the Western Ocean Regional Access, is to get 345,000 cubic yards. The total project amounts to 2 million cubic yards along 9.5 miles of beach.
Meanwhile, barring dramatic changes in the coronavirus situation, the Carteret County Beach Commission, which advises Mr. Rudolph’s office, is set to meet Monday at 2 p.m. in Pine Knoll Shores Town Hall for a scoping session on the next phase of the nourishment project.
That effort is expected to deliver a similar amount of sand to central Emerald Isle, beginning either late this year or early in 2021.
Moffatt & Nichol, the county’s beach engineering firm, will make a presentation at the commission meeting.
“Our goal is to … go out to bid as soon as possible,” Mr. Rudolph said. “As we have experienced, there is correlation between soliciting bids earlier and securing a better price.”
The commission will also discuss a financing plan for the next project.
The current project is being paid for with about $15 million in state grant funds and money from the county’s beach reserve fund, which gets half the revenue from the county’s occupancy tax.
Towns are not paying anything for the current project, though they pitched in for past projects.
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email Brad@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.
Source: carolinacoastonline
