Posted on November 20, 2017
By Lee Hinnant, stateportpilot.com
Oak Island’s engineer will meet with a contractor Thursday to finalize plans for placing emergency sand along much of the beach, town council learned Tuesday night.
Johnny Martin of Moffatt & Nichol presented preliminary figures for that project and other shoreline protection efforts. A crew finished the annual survey of the beach and nearshore bottom profile two weeks ago, he said.
The emergency work must be finished by April 30, 2018, to avoid conflicts with birds and sea turtles, but Martin said he expects the job would be over well before then. Sand will be placed in four general areas from SE 61st Street west to 51st Place West, creating a dune ranging from 10.75 to 12.75 feet tall, using about 104,000 cubic yards of sand from a pit off Airport Road. The top of the dune will be about six feet wide, and sea oats will be planted on the top and landward slope, Martin said.
Martin said the emergency sand would be placed as far inland as practical to minimize losses from winter storms.
The total cost of the project is expected to be $4.7-million, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency paying 75-percent of the bill. State disaster relief funds are expected to cover the remainder, said Mayor Cin Brochure.
Martin said some parts of the beach had recovered slightly since Hurricane Matthew, which eroded an average of five cubic yards of sand every linear foot. The eastern areas of the town are at the greatest risk, he said. The recent survey found that the recreational beach had returned in some spots heavily eroded by Matthew.
Other dredging
Martin said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now expects to open bids for the harbor maintenance dredging on December 14, assuming funding is available. The base bid would put sand on Caswell Beach and Oak Island as far west as SE 77th Street. Oak Island intends to contribute up to $3-million toward the work, which is expected to bring additional sand as far west as SE 58th Street. Together, the projects would renourish about 10,000 linear feet of shoreline, adding about 40 cubic yards of sand per foot. For comparison, a standard dump truck holds about 10 cubic yards.
Martin said he was working on “piggybacking” the $8-million sea turtle habitat restoration project with the corps’s planned harbor maintenance. If the corps can’t make arrangements, it is possible the town could negotiate directly with the dredging contractor to do some or all of the project.
The turtle project will put about 364,000 cubic yards of sand in an area from SE 63rd Street to roughly 17th Place East.
Martin said it’s not entirely clear where the sand for the turtle project would come from. There may be up to 500,000 cubic yards just offshore in an area called the Central Reach, but it’s unlikely the dredge operators could recover that much without running into mud, rock and other undesirable sediments. The town may need to consider sand from the Yellow Banks or other inland sources, depending on the schedule, Martin said.
Source: stateportpilot.com
