FENWICK ISLAND – A beach replenishment project scheduled to start in Fenwick Island in early July has been postponed.
In a Fenwick Island Town Council meeting last Friday, Mayor Gene Langan announced the start date for the town’s beach replenishment project has been rescheduled from early July to July 21.
“This was supposed to start last November,” he said.
Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District awarded a $19.2 million contract to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company to dredge more than 1.4 million cubic yards of sand that will be used to fortify the beaches and dune system in Bethany, South Bethany and Fenwick Island. The beach replenishment projects will address the beaches and dunes that were damaged by a Nor’easter in October of 2015 and Winter Storm Joaquin in January of 2016.
The overall project purpose is to place approximately 659,000 cubic yards of beach fill in Bethany Beach, 500,000 cubic yards in South Bethany and 278,000 cubic yards in Fenwick Island.
The work also includes the construction or repair of pedestrian, vehicle, and ADA accessible dune crossovers; the partial demolition of an ADA accessible crossover, including piles, post and rail fence; planting dune grass; and install new sand fence and post and rail fence.
In late February, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District announced preliminary work, or “mobilization,” for the projects would begin in mid-April and beach replenishment work would begin in mid-May.
Great Lakes will be moving from north to south, starting at Bethany Beach and working their way to Fenwick Island. In a meeting last week, however, the Army Corps of Engineers informed town officials the contractor would not arrive at Bethany Beach until this week.
“The last we have heard the dredges still weren’t here,” Langan said.
To that end, work in Fenwick is now scheduled to begin on July 21 and replenishment will take approximately 13 days to complete, weather permitting.
“We’re just keeping an eye on it,” Langan said.
Dune grass planting is expected to begin shortly after the beach replenishment project concludes and will be completed between Nov. 16, 2018 and April 15, 2019.
