Posted on August 24, 2021
OCEAN CITY, MD- Ocean City is announcing a 15.7 million dollar Beach Restoration project, aimed at keeping the beach viable for visitors, and protected against erosion from rising sea levels and stronger storms brought on by climate change.
Maryland Officials stood alongside the Army Corps of Engineers Thursday to Unveil the OC Shoreline Nourishment program, which will bring sand replacement for over 8 miles of beach, a protective sea wall, and a vegetative dune system to the beach.
It’s the first of this scale in nearly a decade and the latest in the efforts to keep Maryland’s resort town safe.
“The beach renourishment has worked it has saved property damage and brought confidence to people to buy here and to come here and visit OC,” said Maryland Senator Ben Cardin.
Both Senator Cardin and Van Hollen pushed for the funding to be included in President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
According to Colonel Estee Pinchasin of the Army Corps of Engineers, whose department designed the plan and will oversee the building with along with a contractor who received the bid, told 47ABC this effort gives them something previous beach restorations haven’t had; federal dollars to rebuild the beach with federally protected sand.
“We’ll be dredging material from Weaver Schoal about 7 miles away on the continental shelf they’ll be replacing it here on those 8.3 miles of ocean city beach,” she said.
That shelf is federally protected sand and would be off-limits, if not for a partnership between the Corps and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
With their blessing, the project will take sand from over 7 miles offshore and use it to restore areas of the beach where erosion has decreased the landmass and to create sandbars that can shelter the boardwalk from strong wakes from tropical storms.
Steve Feldgas of the Department of the Interior Overseems BOEM, speaking at the event Thursday said he views this program as setting the beach up for the future.
“With climate change getting more dramatic each year with stronger impacts we are gonna see frequent and stronger storms the sea levels going to continue to rise and projects like these will be essential for protecting people’s homes their lives and the coastal environment, ” Feldgas said.
Those stronger storms call for stronger taller and wider barriers, as well as more sand to handle the traffic of nearly 80 million visitors a year.
“There’s gonna be natural erosion throughout the year but we are really using these structures and new infrastructure to protect from storms,” Colonel Pinchasin said.
Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan, speaking at the unveiling, said the 15.7 million dollar price tag is nothing compared to what Ocean City and Maryland stand to gain with a fully functional Ocean City beach and boardwalk for years to come.
“You have to remember that the town of ocean city sends over 300 million dollars in direct tax revenue to the federal government the state of Maryland and Worcester county, I believe that substantiates how good this investment is,” he said.
Construction will begin after labor day, and is scheduled to conclude after memorial day, making sure those new defenses are up before peak season next year.
