Beach rebuild north of inlet complete
After about six weeks of work, the beach replenishment project immediately north of the Indian River Inlet has been completed.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, the contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, finished work midway through the week of Nov. 10.
It was a good collaborative effort, said Bill Hanson, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company senior vice president market development.
As of Nov. 17, the land-based team from Great Lakes was still on site preparing to move on to its next project, but the large cutter dredge and supporting marine-based team were no longer anchored offshore.
The project pumped about 550,000 cubic yards of sand onto about 5,000 feet of the beach. The sand came from the Ebb Shoal of the inlet system, which is located about a mile offshore. Mobilization for the project began in late September.
The completion of the project marks the end of a two-phase replenishment project for this section of state-maintained beach in the last calendar year. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control oversaw the first phase of the project, which pumped about 480,000 cubic yards of sand onto the same stretch of beach. The sand for the project came from a shoal on the south side of the Indian River Inlet.
The emergency fortification project, estimated to cost between $25 million and $28 million, was in response to two dune breaches, and a couple of close calls, that took place in 2024. The breaches shut down the northbound lanes of Route 1 for hours. In addition to the sand, 650 feet of sheet piles were installed by the state along northbound Route 1.
Moving forward, the state will attempt to maintain the shoreline in the area with a sand bypass system that moves sand from the south side of the inlet to the north side through a black pipe that goes up the ocean-facing pylon tower to the south, runs along the main span of the bridge and then goes down the ocean-facing pylon tower to the north, before depositing sand near the foundation of an old Coast Guard antenna.
The sand bypass system was offline for several years and has recently been upgraded with new pumps and a new electric motor.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
