Posted on September 18, 2024
Residents of Palm Beach’s far North End can expect a noisy start to the year after the Town Council approved a waiver that exempts the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the island’s noise ordinance for its 2025 project to dredge the Palm Beach Inlet.
The exemption, part of the consent agenda for the council’s Sept. 10 meeting, allows the Corps to work around the clock, including Sundays and legal holidays, without violating the town’s noise ordinance about construction work and use of heavy equipment.
Dredging is expected to start in January at its earliest, but no later than March, with an expected completion date of April 30, Project Manager Chris McNees said in an Aug. 5 memo to town staff.
During the dredging, the Corps will create a staging area for its offshore equipment in the Intracoastal Waterway, southeast of the Port of Palm Beach, and about a third-of-a-mile west of the town’s shoreline, according to a memo sent to the council by Public Works Director Paul Brazil. The offshore site will be within Palm Beach’s legal jurisdiction, the memo said.
Sand collected during dredging will be placed in a designated area just south of the inlet’s southern jetty. After April 30, it will be distributed around the stretch of water along the shoreline from Caribbean Road to Onondaga Avenue, according to the map attached to McNees’ memo.
It’s the first of three major beach nourishment projects scheduled for 2025.
Also planned for January is the Phipps Ocean Park Beach Nourishment Project, which will replenish the dunes in the stretch of shoreline from Phipps Ocean Park south to La Bonne Vie Condominiums.
The Midtown Shore Protection Project, which will see the Army Corps replenishing sand lost to erosion during the 2022 hurricane season, also is scheduled, though town officials have yet to announce a start date.
