Corps to extend stormwater pipes in Rehoboth

Rehoboth Beach’s frequently clogged stormwater outfall pipes are finally getting their fix.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to begin putting permanent extensions on stormwater outfall pipes at Laurel Street and Rehoboth and Delaware avenues. The corps has agreed to an $822,000 contract with New Jersey-based Reilly Construction. The city will chip in $200,000 toward the total to extend the Rehoboth Avenue pipe, an expense the city commissioners approved Dec. 3.

The extensions are expected to allow the corps to pump sand onto the beach without clogging the outfall pipes, using the same template as was used in last February's massive project.

Mayor Sam Cooper said the contractor would be mobilizing in three or four weeks. Corps spokesman Steve Rochette said the project is expected to begin Monday, Feb. 18.

Cooper said work would start at Delaware Avenue, the most problematic of the three outfalls because it is deeper than the other two and pipes on Delaware, Brooklyn and Wilmington avenues all feed into it. The Delaware Avenue pipe twice has been the source of flooding: once after an Aug. 25 storm that flooded the underground parking garage at Brighton Suites and a second time during Hurricane Sandy in late October.

The corps gave the city an option to extend the Rehoboth Avenue pipe, where corps officials said the sand was eroding naturally, but city officials agreed to go ahead and extend it, so as to not hamper future beach renourishment efforts. Rochette said the project has been delayed since December while the contract was negotiated. He said Reilly Construction was given the notice to proceed on Jan. 25

Other than funding, city officials will have very little role in managing the project.

“We have no control over the contractor. It’s their contract,” Cooper said.

Problems with the outfall pipes date back to last year's beach replenishment project. The corps pumped so much sand on the beach that it buried existing stormwater outfalls at Maryland, Rehoboth, Delaware and Olive avenues and Laurel Street.

The corps had anticipated the sand in the clogged outfalls would erode over time, which occurred at Maryland and Olive avenues. However, the outfalls at Rehoboth Avenue, Laurel Street and Delaware Avenue did not erode as expected; as a result, an excavator has been on-site during the summer and through the winter to clear the outfalls during low tides on weekdays.