The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District awards a new contract for beach replenishment in Sussex County.
The $8.1 million dollar contract was awarded to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company for dredging and beach replenishment in the Indian River Inlet.
The work is typically done by the Joint Sand Bypass plant managed by DNREC, but that plant has been down for repairs until this year; this project aims to make up the work missed by that downtime.
Steve Rochette is the spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District.
“Typically, the sand bypass plant which regularly would pump sand to the north shore, sort of takes the place of this. So, this is just because that’s been down for several years and the areas in a sand starved and vulnerable state.” he told DPM.
Rochette says the Indian River Inlet is a high risk area for flooding. Flooding issues there have been a persistent problem affecting Route 1 and the Indian River Inlet bridge.
“This is a vulnerable area, and the whole idea is to reduce the risk of storm damages to the infrastructure including Route 1 and the Indian River Inlet Bridge” he said.
The sand is being moved from the south shores to the north under the now operational Joint Sand Bypass plant project managed by DNREC (den-reck).
This area was affected particularly harshly during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, where the Army Corps of Engineers did similar beach replenishment work for the state the following year.
This project will ultimately move 550,000 cubic yards of sand. For reference, that’s enough to fill nearly 37,000 dump trucks.
Beachgoers can expect temporary closures when the project begins this fall.
