Dredger Merritt ready for Bogue Inlet job

The dredging vessel Merritt is currently dredging Carolina Beach Inlet and will continue work through tomorrow. Afterward, she will take a trip up the coast to Bogue Inlet to keep the AIWW safe for all mariners, emergency vessels, transportation, and recreation, said USACE.

Carteret County Shore Protection Office Manager Ryan Davenport, whose office helps plan and oversee dredging and beach nourishment projects in the county, said that the Bogue work is expected to last about a week.

It’s all being paid for by the federal government, Davenport said.

The project involves about 200 feet of shoaled material that has made it difficult for boaters.

“It’s gotten shoaled up pretty bad in the last couple of months,” he said. 

Dudley’s Channel is right after boaters turn south out of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

The Merritt is a side-casting dredger – it scoops up material and tosses it aside, working with the tides – and works mainly off the coast of North Carolina and occasionally makes its way to South Carolina.

The side-casting dredger allows for faster movement of sand, opposed to other types of dredges.