Posted on September 24, 2018
The United States Army Corps of Engineers have begun another round of beach renourishment in Surfside Beach on Wednesday. The project will ultimately pump 1.4 million cubic yards of sand along Grand Strand beaches to protect against storms.
Beach renourishment along the Grand Strand was put on hold for Hurricane Florence, but officials are working to resume the process later this week.
The $34 million project is expected to be done by the original completion date, Dec. 15, according to Sean McBride, public affairs specialist with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. McBride said the contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, will pick up where they left off, with work beginning right before the City of Myrtle Beach.
While Hurricane Florence did not impact the Grand Strand like expected, storm surge and higher water levels did affect the beachfront.
Did we just waste $34 million on rebuilding beaches? Project paused for Hurricane Florence
“With that water coming in, it had to have taken a lot of sand out,” Surfside Beach Mayor Bob Childs said. “There’s no way in the world all that water could have come in and not affected it in any way.”
But work on the project depends on surveys, which will be complete Tuesday and Wednesday. To survey the beach, Army Corps officials go out in an ATV and use sonar equipment to measure how much sand needs to be replaced on the beaches.
Officials will also survey Garden City and Surfside, which were completed prior to the storm to see if the contractor needs to redo any work.
McBride said officials completed the process before the storm, making the data easy to compare to see how much damage Florence brought to the Grand Strand.
Work halted early last week, forcing officials to move about 25,000 feet of pipe, five to six loaders and two dredges — boats offshore that pump sand onto the beach — to safe locations. The dredges were moved to the Charleston Harbor, McBride said.
“The plan for the project going forward would be to pick up where they left off and continue on,” McBride said. “In terms of the area that’s already been done, we don’t know at this point whether or not there were any impacts or if anything needs to be adjusted so we’ll be able to figure that out after we do the surveys.”
Source: MyrtleBeachOnline
