Rehoboth repairs Delaware Avenue stormwater outfall
Looking to keep one of Rehoboth Beach’s five stormwater outfalls in good working order, a marine contractor has welded plates over holes on the seaward end of the Delaware Avenue pipe.
Rehoboth has five stormwater outfalls emptying into the ocean – Virginia, Maryland, Rehoboth and Delaware avenues, and Laurel Street.
Public Works Director Henry Matlosz said during a commissioner meeting May 16, that the repair project at Delaware Avenue would take place either before Memorial Day or soon after.
City staff performed an inspection of the city’s stormwater outfalls earlier this year, during which holes on the top and sides were discovered, said Matlosz. He thought it was prudent to repair those holes, he said.
A coupling at the Maryland Avenue outfall also needs to be repaired, said Matlosz.
A three-man crew from Eastern Marine Services of Essex, Md., was on site the week before Memorial Day, but had to delay completing the project because of poor weather. They were back at it May 27. The crew members declined to give their names, but said performing the work on the outfall is a challenge because the pipe is in the surf zone. It would be easier if it was fully submerged in water the whole time, they said.
Looking forward, Matlosz said he was going to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to include a full-scale repair the next time a beach replenishment project takes place, which, he said, is expected to be in 2026.
The state tests for levels of enterococci bacteria at all guarded, and several unguarded, public beaches during the swimming season. The state has a number of recreational water monitoring sites located in Rehoboth Beach – at Deauville Beach, Virginia Avenue, Rehoboth Avenue and Queen Street.
After the meeting, Matlosz said the city has no concerns about water quality at this time.
In addition to being partially submerged in naturally corrosive salt water, Rehoboth’s stormwater outfalls require regular maintenance because they face the brunt of the high winds and big waves that blow in off the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2023, in conjunction with a beach replenishment project, the outfalls at Maryland and Virginia avenues had to be repaired after being damaged during the Mother’s Day storm of 2022.
In late 2019, the city replaced the corrugated metal pipe that runs under the ocean block of Delaware Avenue and a section that runs under the dune, from Wilmington Avenue south to Brooklyn Avenue. In this instance, the city used the existing pipe as a form for a cured-in-place pipe.
In early 2017, as part of another beach replenishment project, 108 feet of 30-inch pipe was added to the Virginia Avenue pipe and 54 feet of 36-inch pipe was added to the Maryland Avenue pipe.
In 2013, the pipes at Delaware Avenue, Rehoboth Avenue and Laurel Street were extended.
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.
