Post-Florence project moving along nicely

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and their hopper dredge Liberty Island yesterday delivered the last load of sand to Reach 1 (Far West Emerald Isle) of the post-Florence Renourishment Project.

After completing the Reach 1, GLDD moved to the next location and placed the first load of sand in Central Emerald Isle (Reach 3).

In order to complete the project before the April 30th deadline, GLDD’s second hopper dredge (the Ellis Island) is now expected to arrive on the site a day or two early (March 15th or 16th).

According to the Carteret County, the Ellis Island will serve the “3rd Pipeline Landing” as the Liberty Island will continue to work on “Line 2”.

“We’ve completed works on the farthest reach from the borrow site (the ODMDS). It took roughly 6 hours to complete an entire cycle – dredging, sailing to west Emerald Isle, pumping out the hopper dredge to the beach, sailing back to the borrow source,” the county officials said.

“Now, the productivity will improve greatly as the cycle time gets shorter. Starting the works on “Reach 3” at the Central Emerald Isle, which is much closer to the borrow site, means a shorter sail distance (both to and from),” the officials added.

“Add to that, we should really see a big productivity push once the second dredge arrives in mid-March – the Ellis Island – the largest hopper dredge in the United States holding 14,800 cubic yards “of air” – likely over 10,000 cy of sand per load,” they concluded.

In total, during the Phase III of post-Florence Renourishment Project, GLDD will move more than 2 million cubic yards of sand from the Offshore Dredged Material Disposal Site(ODMDS) – associated with Morehead City Federal Navigation Project – to nourish 9.4 miles of beach in Emerald Isle.