Posted on September 9, 2024
BETHANY BEACH, Del. – DNREC has told CoastTV there has been a shift in their approach at repairing the dune at the North Indian River Inlet Beach.
The dune was destroyed almost two weeks ago which led to severe flooding, causing people to find alternate routes.
Now, DNREC has shared that parts of the beach will be closed for several months due to safety concerns.
This posed the question, is this dune able to be fixed?
Volunteer for the Delaware Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, Michael Powell, says “absolutely.”
“Removing the debris is absolutely possible if the resources are put in place to do it,” said Powell. “There is sand near by the north side of Indian River Inlet that can be moved on to the beach there.”
“It was done after Hurricane Sandy. It was an expensive project, but it was done successfully in 2013. We think that something like that is needed again,” Powell explained.
Skip Franz spent time fishing at the South Inlet. He says he’s not an engineer but his carpentry skills led him to a possible solution.
“My opinion is if they put more rocks in here, I think we need to save it because it’s a vital part of the area. So if that part of the bridge is out nobody is going up to Rehoboth,” said Franz.
The rocks Franz was referring to are jetties. Powell says more jetties isn’t necessarily a fix.
“The jetties are blocking the flow of sand that comes up from the south. Building more jetties in that area would not address the fact that it’s already being starved of sand by the two jetties that are already there,” Powell explained.
Powell says the fix is more sand. Specifically, medium grain to fine grain sand. He says these specific grains will repair the area.
DNREC told CoastTV their “beach crew received almost 11,000 tons of material through a combined effort of DELDOT drivers and sand vendor haulers, as storm sand expenses totaled almost $223,000” after the coastal storm in March.
DNREC now says “this is no longer a beach replenishment project, but a transportation infrastructure and public safety undertaking that requires the full support” of multiple government agencies.
This includes “DELDOT, DNREC, United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the General Assembly on both a fiscal and physical front.”
