Work Plan for Wilmington District Released

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, announced last Friday the final allocation of $101.6 million for FY 2017 and budget proposal containing $60.5 million for the FY 2018.

According to the Corps, the President released both the work plan for fiscal year 2017 (FY17) and his budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 (FY18) which includes funding for ongoing projects in the Wilmington District.

The FY17 work plan provides funding of $ 21.5 million under the Construction Appropriation for the Districts four constructed Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Projects.

Specifically, funding was received for the following projects: Wrightsville Beach, NC ($ 3.8 million); Carolina Beach & Vicinity, NC ($ 12.3 million); and Ocean Isle Beach ($ 3.8 million).

The Carolina Beach & Vicinity, NC project includes sand placement on both Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. These are all cost share projects, with the Federal Government providing 65% of the total nourishment costs.

The Wilmington District also received $1.3 million for the Bogue Banks, Carteret County, NC Project under the Investigations Appropriation. These funds were provided to complete the project’s Preconstruction, Engineering, and Design (PED) Phase.

The FY17 work plan also provides additional funding of $15.3 million under the Operation and Maintenance Appropriation. Included in the work plan funding is $9.95 million for the Cape Fear River above Wilmington Harbor, NC Project.

Funding was provided for the Masonboro Inlet and Connecting Channels, NC ($2.3 million) for mitigation of jetty impacts to Wrightsville Beach. The District also received funds for additional maintenance dredging on Wilmington Harbor ($1 million) and Rollinson Channel ($1.5 million).

The FY18 budget provides about $55.1 million for O&M of the District’s projects including maintenance dredging of multiple deep and shallow draft navigation harbors and channels including Wilmington Harbor at $14.7 million; Morehead City Harbor at $5.6 million; Manteo (Shallowbag) Bay (Oregon Inlet) at $4.8 million and the AIWW at $2.8 million.

The District’s five lakes and dams are included in the budget with John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir in NC and VA (Buggs Island) receiving $16.2 million. The other four District lake projects received a combined $13.1 million to continue to provide flood risk management, recreation and other authorized purposes and services to the public.

“The additional funding for this year gives the Wilmington District a great opportunity to provide a higher level of service to the public in North Carolina. We will be able to address issues at both our Coastal Storm Risk Management Projects, as well as providing additional maintenance for several of our Federal Navigation Projects,” said Wilmington District Commander Colonel Kevin Landers, Sr.

Like each year’s presidential budget, the proposed FY18 budget begins a process that includes action by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and results in an appropriations bill to be enacted into law before final funding amounts are known.