OCEAN CITY — The latest beach replenishment project in Ocean City got underway this month with work beginning at the north end of town heading south.
The familiar heavy equipment, pipes and offshore equipment seen for decades around the resort about every four years began showing up last week at the north end of Ocean City’s beaches. The staging area is set at 145th Street, and the beaches were closed from 145th Street to 146th Street Monday.
The city’s website provides daily updates on closure areas and the progress of the beach replenishment project. The project is working from north to south and when it its completed, the beaches and the dune network will be renourished from the Delaware line to the north end of the Boardwalk at 27th Street. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year.
Deliveries of equipment began last week at the staging area at 145th Street. As a result, parking at the street end at 145th Street has been removed and the northbound right lane on Coastal Highway will be closed from 142nd Street to 146th Street during the period deliveries to the beach replenishment project are being made, which is expected to be around two weeks.
Ocean City’s beaches are replenished every four years, or occasionally more frequently if the beaches are severely damaged and eroded during hurricanes or coastal storms. The resort’s beaches have been replenished five times since the inception of the Atlantic Coast of Maryland Shoreline Protection 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. The overall project includes a wider, elevated beach, a protective sea wall along the Boardwalk and a vegetated dune system from the end of the Boardwalk to the Delaware state line.
In March, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the ACE and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced an agreement to source sand from the outer continental shelf for this year’s beach replenishment project. Sand for the project will be sourced from the Weaver Shoal about seven miles off the coast of Ocean City. Sand usually sourced from borrow areas in state waters has been depleted from previous replenishment projects.
