The federal government is scheduled this winter to set up a dredge off the coast of Ocean City, lay underwater pipe and pump more than a million cubic yards of sand onto the island’s storm-ravaged beaches.
The $10 million beach-widening project is also scheduled to stop somewhere between 14th and 17th streets — leaving more than four miles of Ocean City beaches without a grain of sand to show for all the effort.
At its public meeting on Thursday (Nov. 29), City Council will vote on a nonbinding resolution “respectfully requesting” the federal government to approve funding for beach replenishment from 36th to 59th streets.
The request takes on new meaning in the wake of “superstorm” Sandy, which wiped out dune systems across much of the island, and leaves the severely eroded north and south ends of Ocean City extremely vulnerable to new coastal storms.
[mappress]
Source: oceancity, November 28, 2012; Image: usace