RFP issued for Rehoboth, Dewey beach replenishment
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a request for proposals Aug. 7 for the beach replenishment of Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach. According to the RFP, bids will be opened Tuesday, Sept. 10.
In an email Aug. 5, Stephen Rochette, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps expects to award the contract in late September, and once that’s done they’ll have a better idea on when work will take place. For now, he said, a late fall to early winter time frame is a good estimate.
The RFP calls for 409,000 cubic yards of sand - 190,000 in Rehoboth and 219,000 in Dewey - to be pumped. The proposal also calls for an additional 100,000 cubic yards of sand - 50,000 at each - if needed.
Specifically to Rehoboth, the proposal calls for 270 linear feet of ADA grab rails, 370 linear feet of sand fencing and 560 plugs of dune grass.
About halfway to completion, beach replenishment is a 50-year program that typically runs on a three-year cycle. Funding is provided 65 percent by the federal government and 35 percent by the state government.
Michigan-based contractor Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has performed the last two beach replenishments for Rehoboth and Dewey, most recently in fall 2016. There were 620,805 cubic yards of sand pumped at a cost of about $11 million. There were also 8,000 linear feet of fence installed in Rehoboth, 1,800 linear feet of fence in Dewey and 91,040 dune grass plugs. The cost for sand fence and dune grass installation was approximately $200,000.
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. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
