The U.S. Coast Guard has notified the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the two inlets along with Bogue Inlet are so degraded that the Coast Guard has no capability to perform search and rescue in the Atlantic Ocean.
At two different meetings, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced its dredging schedule to address the problem at the Dare County inlets. At both the Dare County Waterways Commission and Oregon Inlet Task Force meetings, Joen Petersen represented the Corps.
The sidecaster Merritt arrived in Wanchese Thursday, Feb. 11. The next morning, it worked for an hour on the west side of the Oregon Inlet bridge and then returned to Wanchese. Its job is to cut a pilot channel. Then the hopper dredge Merden will come from Virginia and work west of the bridge for a week, while the Merritt goes to Hatteras Inlet around Feb. 15-17 to cut a channel for the South Ferry Channel. Then, Feb. 22 to 23, the two Corps dredges will flip again.
R.C. Soles Jr., longtime NC legislator who quietly dodged scandal, dies at age 86 Richard Stradling, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Feb. 6 RALEIGH R.C. Soles Jr., who represented his native Columbus County in the General Assembly for 42 years and became one of the state s top Democratic lawmakers before retiring after shooting a former legal client in the leg, has died at age 86.
His death at a hospital in Loris, South Carolina, south of Tabor City, on Friday was announced by the Inman Ward Funeral Home and first reported by The News Reporter in Whiteville, the county seat where Soles practiced law for decades.
Congressman Murphy: Additional dredging for Silver Lake Harbor February 2, 2021, by Eldin Ganic
After North Carolina Congressman Greg Murphy called for additional funding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced plans to include additional dredging operations during their regular maintenance of Manteo-Shallowbag Bay, Silver Lake Harbor and New River Inlet.
A special request for an additional $1.3 million for these projects was made to the USACE via the Office of Management and Budget by Murphy, which was subsequently granted.
Work is expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year.
“Dredging is an indispensable and critical service to eastern North Carolina’s commercial and recreational fishing industries. Livelihoods as well as our national defense depend upon navigable waters in the Third District,” said
A dredge shown operating. Photo: Donna Barrett
Reprinted from the Island Free Press
Details about a comprehensive proposal laying out numerous options for disposal of dredge material occupied much of Wednesday’s meeting of the Dare County Waterways Commission, indicating that finding somewhere to put excess sand may be as challenging as finding ways to keep it from washing away.
In a lengthy slide presentation on the proposed Dare County Dredge Material Management, Ken Willson with Wilmington-based consultant Coastal Protection Engineering, or CPE, told commissioners during its Jan. 20 remote meeting that the preliminary plan was the result of several months of work, with feedback from Dare County Projects Manager Brent Johnson and others.
Coastal Review Online is featuring the research, findings and commentary of author Kevin Duffus
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First of three parts
It was not Shakespeare but Pythagoras who likely first imagined the world as a stage “whereon many play their parts.”
No more often am I reminded of this proverb than when I am traveling across the inlet between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands one of many grand stages of North Carolina’s maritime history.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation ferry Croatoan gets underway from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke. Photo: Mark Hibbs
The ferry I am on meanders its way along the narrow, serpentine channels, across boiling pools of wavelets and at times rolling on the incoming swells of the Atlantic as salt spray breaks over the bow. Before long, I spot the tell-tale behavior of excited tourists making the passage for their first time. They gingerly stagger about the pitching deck, taking selfies, feeding seagulls, or waving at passing fishing boats.