Rehoboth sand pumping could start soon

Storm-damaged Rehoboth Beach and neighboring Dewey Beach will get an $11 million sand infusion beginning in the next few days as part of a long-term, federal beach restoration contract with the state.

Sand pumping could start off Baltimore Avenue as early as Friday.

Stephen Rochette, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the dredge crews are completing a beach restoration project at Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Once that is finished, they will move south to Rehoboth.

That New Jersey project is expected to be finished no later than next week, he said.

In Rehoboth, beach contractor Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has already laid the pipeline that will be used to pump sand onto the beach, said Krys Johnson, a city spokeswoman.

Once the dredge arrives, it will hook to the pipeline and begin pumping sand onto the beach, she said.

"We do need it," Johnson said.

The operation will run 24 hours a day and will move south from Baltimore Avenue, she said.

In mid-December, a second pipeline will be placed on the beach at Pennsylvania Avenue and sand pumping will start at the north end of the city, she said.

Two of the city's stormwater discharge pipes – damaged during recent storms – will also be repaired.

The city will pay a total of $946,000 to replace the pipe extensions that extend into the ocean at Virginia and Maryland avenues, Johnson said. The new pipe extensions will be a more robust design, she said.

Great Lakes will also handle that task, Rochette said.

In all, a little over 1 million cubic yards of sand will be pumped in to rebuild Rehoboth and Dewey beaches.

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Two coastal storms – one in October 2015 and another in January – did significant damage to ocean beaches from Cape Henlopen State Park south to South Bethany.  While the sand losses were greatest in Bethany and South Bethany beaches, Rehoboth and Dewey were in line for routine, three-year maintenance work. Bethany and South Bethany won't be eligible for maintenance until 2017.

Under the state's 50-year contract with the Army Corps, a typical maintenance project in Rehoboth-Dewey would be about 360,000 cubic yards every 3 years, Rochette said.

In this project, the base bid for sand was for 424,000 cubic yards for the two municipal beaches. In addition, the project will include an additional 384,000 cubic yards of sand in Rehoboth Beach and an extra 269,000 cubic yards in Dewey Beach.

In the past, sand for Rehoboth and Dewey has been mined from a bar off Fenwick Island but this time, the contractor will be mining sand from a new site just south of Dewey Beach, Rochette said.

The sand is expected to be very similar to what is already on the beach, he said.

Contact Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.