Weather helps Corps make headway at inlet
The Currituck is now working in Oregon Inlet. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)
Roger Bullock, chief of the Wilmington District’s Navigation Branch, reported that the dredge Currituck arrived Oct. 14, relieving the Fry, and had succeeded in digging the pilot channel to a depth of 12 feet.
The Currituck, he said, would spend 15 days widening the edges of the channel from its current width of 120 to 125 feet.
The Corps received significant help from Mother Nature this time around. A flurry of strong west winds helped move significant amounts of sand out of the channel, making the Corps’ work easier.
Steve Shriver, Corps team leader for the Survey Section, told members of the commission at their meeting Tuesday that the channel was holding well at 11 to 12 feet. Shriver and Bullock said they expected good progress from the Currituck and noted the dredging cycle — the time from loading the hopper dredge to unloading the sand into a 40 foot hole inside the sound and returning to the dredge spot was down to one hour, allowing 300 cubic yards of material to be moved each cycle.
After the Currituck departs, a smaller sidecaster dredge will be on site through December, and the Corps has enough money to bring the Currituck back one more time in January. When asked by Commission Chairman Michael Davenport if this indicated the channel “will be open for the entire winter fishing season,” Bullock replied “Yes sir.”
When Davenport asked about other areas in navigable waters, Bullock said that the Hell’s Gate federal channel was shoaled, while Shriver reported that there was plenty of deep water outside the federal area of responsibility. To fix Hell’s Gate would require a pipeline contract and there is not enough funding.
Repairs have been made to the ferry channel between Hatteras and Ocracoke, where some ferries recently reported touching bottom, Bullock said. He also said a contract was out for bid and work would soon begin on the Stumpy Point ferry channels.
Bullock said he had “no insight” on the fiscal year the 2012 budget. He said afterward that the budget submitted by President Obama allocated $4.1 million for local work next year. Bullock said this would allow about the same amount of dredging in Oregon Inlet as in 2011, but would not allow for dredging at Hell’s Gate or near Wanchese harbor, two areas Bullock said “it’s getting about time” to deal with.
Congress, however, has typically voted on renewing a continuing resolution for local funding, which would provide more money than Obama’s budget — perhaps as much as $6 million.
As the meeting closed, former Commission Chairman Moon Tillett told the board that it was “again time to raise the issue” of a northern jetty at Oregon Inlet, something he recalled had been talked about since the 1930s. He also expressed concerns about the possibility of the southern jetty being removed if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuses to re-authorize the permit when the new Oregon Inlet bridge is built.
Tillett recounted how many times politicians had said such a jetty would be built and how Oregon Inlet would be kept open “all the time.” He said U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., promised that if President Bush was re-elected in 2004, “the jetty would be built.” Now, Tillett says, Jones will not discuss the subject, which prompted committee member Arvin Midgett to interject, “Walter Jones is not our lord and master. We’re not getting anything that was promised in any vein.”.]
“We need a bailout,” Tillett said. “They bailed out everyone else, why can’t they bail us out? I don’t have many years left, I’d like to see something get going before I’m gone.”
Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, recounted the numerous trips to Washington, D.C. that he and members of the OIWC had made in years past to find a more permanent solution for Oregon Inlet’s woes, only to come back empty-handed.
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Stewie says:
“…only to come back empty-handed.”
Get used to it. We can’t continue to cut taxes without concomitant cuts in spending can we?
Sadly though, chances are our citizens will still continue to expect our Congress critters to continue to bring home the bacon despite all this Tea Party rhetoric.
ekim says:
We were warned that the groin was built to push sand away from the old C G station an its doing what its suposed to do.WHat a huge wast of money this has been,If thay tear down the groin will that stop the problem?I dont agree with with mr BULLOCK one good winter NOREASTER an the inlet will close up in a day!
Butch says:
What did they do with the sand???
What happens when you dig a hole on the beach?
it fills back up again–
but this hole fills back up- with sand from the south Nags Head beaches
ekim says:
When they built that groin, we were warned that it pushes sand. The groin was built to protect the old Coast Guard Station which they abandoned 2 years later. If we don’t jetty the other side, they’ll have to dredge forever or remove the groin on the south side.
The comment from the Corp of Engineers fellow was foolish, he obviously doesn’t know the inlet. One good blow will close it up in a day.
The Tea Party has nothing to do with this 20 year old quagmire.
unclekb says:
ekim…I thought the jetty was built to stabilize the south end of the bridge.
ekim says:
Unclekb you might be right I thought it was to protect the old C.G. station, but if it fills the channel and chokes off the inlet then i guess it would stabilize the south side
George Meredith MD says:
Oregon Inlet: Don’t send a Toy to do a Man’s Job
Hopper dredges are ships with large hoppers, or containment areas, inside. Fitted with powerful pumps, the dredges suck dredged material from the channel bottom through long intake pipes, called drag arms, and store it in the hoppers. The water portion of the slurry is drained from the material and is discharged from the vessel during operations. When the hoppers are full, dredging stops and the ship travels to an in-water disposal site, such as near shore Nags Head. The dredge spoils are quickly discharged through the bottom of the ship.
The vessel(s) scheduled to begin the $31 million South Nags Head beach replenishment could obtain their sand from Oregon Inlet. Thus killing two birds with one stone. Providing of course the sand is of the proper size and density. (Virginia Beach learned this lesson the hard way about 20 years ago) If the Oregon Inlet sand is unsuitable, too far or whatever, then a parallel operation, moving at a rapid pace, would be to contract a vessel like the Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge Congo River (look it up). The entire Oregon Inlet could be cleaned out in a matter of weeks through the use of a 5,000 to 10,000 cubic meter vessel as pictured herein.
DEME has dozens of trailing suction hopper dredges including a 4,700 m3 Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger
This Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger is equipped with two (2) trailing pipes, bottom doors and pump ashore installation.
DEME’s new jumbo trailer will have a capacity of 30,000m3.
IHC Merwede Group has the received an order for the construction of a 30,000m³ jumbo trailing suction hopper dredger for the Belgian contractor DEME. The contract for the ship has gone to IHC Dredgers BV and construction will take place at the IHC Krimpen Shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel. Completion is planned for mid-2011.
A trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) trails its suction pipe when working, and loads the dredge spoil into one or more hoppers in the vessel. When the hoppers are full, the TSHD sails to a disposal area and either dumps the material through doors in the hull or pumps the material out of the hoppers. Some dredges also self-offload using drag buckets and conveyors. The largest trailing suction hopper dredger in the world is currently Jan De Nul’s Cristobal Colon (launched July 4, 2008 [1]); its sister ship Leiv Eriksson is under construction as of the end of 2008 (keel laid August 27, 2008, expected launch July 2009[2]). Main design specs for the Cristobal Colon and the Leiv Eriksson are: 46,000 cubic meter hopper and a design dredging depth of 155 m.[3] Next largest is HAM 318 (Van Oord) with its 37,293 cubic meter hopper and a maximum dredging depth of 101 m.
A commercial hopper dredge could discharge its dredge spoils as close to the beach as possible say at North Nags Head. And then let Mother Nature do the rest. The prevailing tides would carry the new sediment southward and inshore. A supplement to the South Nags Head beach restoration project. An added bonus would be a dramatic increase in zooplankton and fish populations. Making South Nags Head the top surf fishing destination on the Outer Banks. Ditto for outer bar vis a vis world class surfing.
But for sure the USACE and their little side discharge Dredge Merritt is nothing but a joke. Another waste of your hard earned federal tax dollars. Just another federal jobs program. Re: the Merritt, don’t send a toy to do a man’s job! Ditto for the hopper dredge Currituck with its tiny 300 cubic meter payload. The Currituck is more expensive per day than commercial trailing pipe hopper dredges such as the Congo River. The Congo River has a 40,000 cubic meter payload! Such a vessel could completely clean out Oregon Inlet in a few weeks! And would not have to return for years. Much less expensive than those make work federal dredge projects. And less expensive than building long, quickly foiled granite rip rap jetties.
George Meredith MD
Virginia Beach
Russ Lay says:
@Dr. George–Are you sure it isn’t Ph.D?