Posted on November 20, 2017
By William Kelly, The Shiny Sheet
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to dredge the Lake Worth Inlet this winter and will place the sand on the northern tip of the town’s shore.
The Corps’ contractor, Weeks Marine, will begin delivering equipment to the beach today with the hope of completing mobilization by Thanksgiving, the town said. There will be no activity during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to Coastal Manager Rob Weber.
The contractor will use Kenlyn Road for access to the beach. Residents will notice pipes, heavy equipment and support vehicles arriving. Activity at Kenlyn will be busiest during mobilization (the two weeks before construction) and demobilization (the two weeks after). This part of the project will be restricted to daylight hours.
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Dredging will start after Thanksgiving. Sand placement will be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and last about five weeks, extending into January, Weber said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers routinely dredges the inlet every two years to keep the channels at appropriate depths. The town accepts the sand to help provide storm protection for upland properties.
About 230,000 cubic yards of sand is expected to be dredged from the inlet’s entrance channel, the Port of Palm Beach turning basins in the Lake Worth Lagoon and sand-settling basins north of the inlet.
The sand will be placed on the beach between the inlet’s south jetty and Palmo Way, with work progressing from north to south. It will be go on the “dry beach” west of the high tide line and eastward into the water. Any rocks will be collected in boxes at the end of the dredge pipeline.
As soon as the inlet dredging is complete, a town contractor, working from Kenlyn Road, will move about 20,000 cubic yards of sand onto the beach between Palmo Way and Colonial Lane, Weber said.
That sand will be placed into off-road dump trucks and driven down the beach to areas where the town has not placed sand before. The sand will be shaped with bulldozers and is expected to be placed against the seawalls to enhance storm protection, Weber said.
Any questions can be directed to Weber at 838-5440.
Source: The Shiny Sheet
