Posted on March 18, 2021
EMERALD ISLE — Buoyed by a string of good weather days, all three dredging and beach nourishment projects in Carteret County are reportedly making great progress.
That was the word Thursday from Greg Rudolph, manager of the County Shore Protection Office, as two of the projects – Deer Creek dredging in Cape Carteret and port dredging and beach nourishment – roll toward the homestretch.
The first project to start, in late December, was the federally financed $18 million channel dredging at the N.C. Port of Morehead City, with sand piped across Bogue Sound to the beach at Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach.
“Beach nourishment continues to progress west of the Oceanana Pier and towards ‘the finish line’ at The Circle,” Mr. Rudolph said in an email Wednesday. “The current outfall is near the intersection of East Boardwalk and S. Greenville Avenue. Weeks Marine (the contractor) and the cutterhead pipeline dredge, the J.S. Chatry, continue to make solid progress nourishment- and harbor-dredging-wise.”
The target in the project is 1,143,000 cubic yards of sand along 13,861 linear feet, plus safer channels for boats entering and leaving the port.
The second effort to start was the dredging of Old Ferry Channel between Cape Carteret and Emerald Isle, plus Deer Creek in Cape Carteret, by contractor T.D. Eure of Beaufort.
As of Wednesday, the work was proceeding in Deer Creek North Extension, one of six segments of the $1.4 million project financed by the state, the county and Cape Carteret, including property owners along the creek.
“This project is going well,” Mr. Rudolph said in the email. “Our contractor … has worked seven days a week through all the rain in February and is plowing through the many reaches of the project.”
Finally, a more-than-2-million-cubic-yard Emerald Isle beach nourishment project has been underway since Feb. 26, with dredging and nourishment work by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. of Illinois.
As of Thursday, work had finished in far western Emerald Isle and nourishment had begun in central Emerald Isle. The effort, known as phase three of the post-Hurricane Florence project, began with the company’s hopper dredge, the Liberty Island.
“The Liberty Island delivered the last load of sand to far west Emerald Isle Wednesday and followed by placing the first load of sand in central Emerald Isle, as well,” Mr. Rudolph said.
A second Great Lakes hopper dredge, the Ellis Island, is now expected to arrive this week, Mr. Rudolph said. The Ellis Island is the biggest hopper dredge in the U.S.
The project totals 9.4 linear miles of beach, with 166,350 cubic yards of sand to be deposited in the extreme western strand off Coast Guard Road, 708,750 cubic yards to the east of that, 537,750 cubic yards in the center of town and 600,000 cubic yards in the extreme east.
The contract with Great Lakes is for $31.6 million.
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email Brad@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.
