OCEAN CITY — The latest round of beach replenishment in Ocean City wrapped up last week ahead of schedule with a project characterized as one of the “smoothest” ever in the resort.
The beach replenishment project, which ultimately pumped an estimated 883,000 cubic yards of sand onto the resort’s beaches from offshore sources, began in early November and was expected to take 40 to 60 days to complete. Once the project got started after a few early scheduling setbacks, it was completed ahead of the anticipated schedule, according to City Engineer Terry McGean.
“This replenishment was arguably the smoothest and best-managed beach project of my career,” he said. “They finished ahead of schedule and did everything we asked of them.”
The project, carried out by the private contractor under the guise of the Army Corps of Engineers and the town and its partners, was originally scheduled for last spring in advance of the summer season. However, when start date restraints would have pushed the project into the early summer season, it was decided to hold off until this fall.
“Doing the work in the off-season helped a lot as well,” McGean said. “The Corps had their coastal engineer on site during the project, so we were able to quickly adjust the design based on real-time survey data to make sure we got the sand exactly where we needed it.”
The contractor worked from north to south, knocking out as many as three blocks a day. Crews worked practically around the clock and on the weekends to bring the project in ahead of schedule.
The Ocean City beaches are routinely replenished every four years with periodic emergency projects as needed following storms and other natural events. The resort’s beaches took somewhat of a pounding earlier this fall from the remnants of hurricanes Harvey, Jose and Maria, but no major new damage was reported and the beach was fairly wide in most areas at the outset of the project.
Beach replenishment began in Ocean City in 1994 through a 50-year agreement with the town, Worcester County and the state of Maryland partnering with the federal Army Corps of Engineers, which provides over 50 percent of the funding for the massive undertaking.
