Posted on July 11, 2018
Some vacationers in Oak Island said they didn’t get the vacation they were hoping for this Fourth of July week.
The Army Corps of Engineers started a dredging project at Oak Island and Caswell Beach in May to pump sand out of the ocean. Engineers said cargo and container ships experience difficulty coming into the Port of Wilmington, so they’re cleaning out the area by scooping out sand to make the Smith Island Channel deeper.
It just so happens that dredging is taking place from May to about August. Both Caswell Beach and Oak Island were supposed to get sand from harbor maintenance in 2016 to 2017, according to the town of Oak Island’s website, but the work was delayed because of costs associated with Hurricane Matthew.
The town said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the contract in November 2017 to start dredging, but there was no bid at the time.
Now, at peak season for the beach town, it became necessary to dredge to keep the channel open for ship traffic. The Corps reissued the contract again to start the dredging process because of the necessity. In April, they accepted a bid from Weeks Marine Inc. to dredge the Wilmington Harbor inner ocean bar.
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, this is a one-time event for the summertime, only necessary due to the funding situation and lack of bidders when the job was first supposed to happen.
The project affects a third of the beach strand, closing about 1,000 feet of the beach at any given time. Right now, that closure is closest to the pier. The Army Corps of Engineers has a page on its website with frequently asked questions about the project.
One of those questions includes “What does this mean if I have rented a beachfront house where the work is occurring?” The answer tells vacationers that as work goes on, portions of the beach in the active work zone will temporarily be off-limits for safety reasons.
Breeann Cunningham and her family are on vacation from Kentucky for the week. They are renting their oceanfront home from the Better Beach rental agency and said they didn’t know about the dredging until they arrived.
“There were tears. It was mortifying. It was mortifying because this is something we do and look forward to every year and do as a family. It’s very expensive to stay oceanfront, and we do that because of our family elements. My grandma is asthmatic and elderly and it’s a shorter walk. My mother has a hernia medical issues. So, we do this so we can be convenience,” she said.
According to Better Beach, the agency sent an email to all renters informing them about the dredging, but Cunningham said she never got it. Now, they have to walk or drive a golf cart 13 houses down to the open part of the beach.
“Well, we won’t forget it. It’ll be the year of remember when they were dredging on the beach that year we’ll probably remember a lot more from this vacation than we do others. It’s very memorable,” she said.
The Town of Oak Island said it met with all rental agencies who wanted to come to the meeting about the project about a month before the project started. They talked about what to expect and what to tell renters.
Town leaders said they’re sorry about the inconvenience, but don’t have any control over it.
Workers will be on the beach 24/7 working on the project, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. They also offer an interactive map updated throughout the project to find out the project’s status.
A few rental agencies in Oak Island have updates on the progress of the project including Oak Island Accommodations. It recommended that vacationers may want to bring along noise-canceling headphones. Oak Island Accommodations has a normal cancellation policy in place, for all reservations, once rent has been paid that money is non-refundable unless a re-booking of equal or greater value occurs.
It does recommend other options besides the beach for entertainment in the area.
Source: WECT
