Carteret County Sand Pumping Operations in Full Swing

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company (GLDD) vessels Liberty Island and Ellis Island have been busy over the past couple of days, dredging the sand from the offshore borrow site and pumping it to the beach in Carteret County.

According to the County’s Shore Protection Office, the two hopper dredges worked methodically last week bringing the sand from the borrow source, sailing to Emerald Isle (Reach 1), and pumping the sand to the beach via two different pipeline landings at 8th and 18th streets.

“The Ellis Island is the largest hopper dredge (capacity wise) in the United States and she means some business when it’s time to pump sand to the beach. Meanwhile the Liberty Island’s rotation times have been fantastic,” the County said in its update.

“Unfortunately it appears we are going to encounter some rough seas over the course of the next few days which present several issues, including but not limited to; (a) safety concerns for the trawlers working ahead of both dredges in the borrow area that relocate endangered/threatened species when encountered (Reva Rose and Jessica Marie), (b) difficulties hooking the dredge to the floating black pipe/cube one sees offshore at the pipeline landing areas, (c) operational concerns of the dredge itself while digging/excavating, and (d) other,” the County added.

And as a final note, the county said that dune planting in Reach 3 (“east Indian Beach/Salter Path) will likely start later this week.

Overall, the Post Florence scheme in Carteret County will utilize 945,446 cubic yards of sand obtained from the Offshore Dredged Material Disposal Site (ODMDS) associated with Morehead City Federal Navigation Project.

Emerald Isle (EI), Indian Beach (IB), and the unincorporated area of Salter Path (SP) will receive 617,131 cy, 271,905 cy, and 56,410 cy, respectively along 5.2 miles of shorelines.

The project is scheduled to be completed in the next two weeks.