DelDOT and DNREC are working together to repair a dune breach Sunday evening on Route 1 just north of the Indian River Inlet Bridge.
By 7 pm Sunday night, both Route 1 northbound lanes just north of the bridge had flooded thanks to a hurricane several hundreds of miles away, a full moon and high tide cycle.
The water later moved to the southbound lanes forcing closures in that direction, too, but the southbound lanes were reopened by 2:30 am Monday morning.
Later Monday morning at around 9:45, the left lane in the northbound side was opened, but the other lane remained closed as DNREC worked on the dune breach.
The plan is for the northbound lanes to see intermittent closures over the next several days as DNREC’s work continues.
DelDOT’s director of community relations C.R. McLeod says that’s the plan for the next several days.
"There's going to be ongoing work happening out here, so there could be additional intermittent lane closures needed just to ensure the safe access for vehicles and crews to get in and out of that area to continue their work," said McLeod.
McLeod notes while DNREC is responsible for the dune repair, DelDOT is helping, using its trucks to bring in rock and sand.
McLeod says along with DNREC they’re looking for a permanent solution to avert these dune breaches.
"Our approach is, we're looking at both short term and long term solutions. Obviously short term, which would be to ensure that we're not having these types of issues occur on a frequent basis. This is the second time we've had this issue this year, the last being in March. Ideally, we can minimize that," said McLeod.
McLeod adds that long-range DelDOT’s Division of Resiliency and Sustainability is looking at this area as well as other coastal areas in the state.
