Island Hopper Boats

Ponce Inlet welcomes dredging project

PONCE INLET -- The blue waters of Ponce de Leon Inlet bustle with activity. Fishermen line the rock jetties, pelicans and gulls zip back and forth and boats of all kinds motor in and out. But, for more than a week, the traffic in the busy inlet has been dodging a dredge removing shoaling sands.

All that traffic, however, isn't dodging any of the traditional pontoon lines and equipment usually associated with dredging. That's because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredge, the Currituck, features an unusual design that allows it to pull up the sand, hold it, then move it around to another spot for deposit.

The 150-foot-long hydraulic dredge is a split-hull hopper with a capacity of 315 cubic yards. That's the equivalent of about 30 large dump trucks. It was designed specially to work in shallow-draft ocean bar channels along the Atlantic Coast.

The maintenance dredging project began in late July and is expected to wrap up Tuesday. The inlet was last dredged about two years ago, under the federal stimulus program, said Nancy Sticht, a public affairs specialist with the Corps' Jacksonville office.

Ponce de Leon Inlet is known among boaters locally for its dynamic character and shifting sands that often catch boaters unaware and require careful planning for larger boats.

This project was timely, said Terri Clark, manager of the Lighthouse Boatyard and Marina in Ponce Inlet.

It was getting to the point that boats over 15 feet had trouble getting in and out sometimes, Clark said. "If you drew more than 3 feet, at low tide forget it."

The inlet had "silted all back in again," from the last dredging project, she said. "Disappearing Island and a shoal on the other side were creeping together."

About 100,000 cubic yards of sand and bottom sediments are expected to be removed by the Currituck. The materials pulled up into the dredge are being hauled around the north jetty. Then the hull is split and the materials are dumped in an area near the shore on the north side.

"The sand will act as a feeder berm, and natural wave action will distribute the sand in the nearshore environment and nourish the beaches," Sticht said. The Currituck usually has an 11-person crew that works in two shifts, crew officials said.

Corps officials said the dredge is economical and easy to maintain and helpful for working in inlets all along the coast.

"It's perfect for this type of work," a relatively small project in a shallow draft inlet, Sticht said. The project is expected to cost about $20,000, she said.

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