Posted on July 6, 2017
By Rob Morris, The Outer Banks Voice
The first leg of an 8-mile beach widening project was completed Wednesday evening when Great Lakes Dredge and Dock wrapped up work on a section of the Town of Duck’s shoreline.
Pumping is already under way in Kill Devil Hills, which was started earlier than planned because two of the company’s dredges were able to stay in the area longer than expected.
Three dredges are now pulling sand from offshore borrow areas 5 to 10 miles from shore, then shuttling it to terminals where it is offloaded into pipes running under water to the beach.
The company’s largest dredge in the area, the Liberty, was moved to Kill Devil Hills while the smaller Dodge and Pare Island finished up the job in Duck.
By Friday, the pipes along the beach starting at Helga Street in Kill Devil Hills were pumping sand into a section of Kitty Hawk. Work is expected to move north 1,000 to 2,000 feet into Kitty Hawk, but the rest of the town’s beach probably won’t be done until August.
It will take about 40 days to widen 2.6 miles of beach in Kill Devil Hills. The exact start dates for Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk projects totaling 4 miles have yet to be announced. Work in Duck started May 22.
The contractor and the towns have said there was never a set order for which beaches would be worked on first when the $38.5 million contract was awarded by Dare County last year, to allow scheduling flexibility to maximize cost savings.
Source: The Outer Banks Voice
