Friday, December 1, 2023
By Outer Banks Voice on March 22, 2021
(U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
At its March 15 meeting, the Dare County Board of Commissioners approved a $60,000 funding request to help the U.S. to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) dredge Merritt that has been working in Hatteras Inlet to break through shoaling in the South Ferry Channel.
The board’s funding — along with a grant from North Carolina’s Shallow-Draft Channel Navigation and Aquatic Weed Fund — provided $240,000 to the USACE to pay for 12 additional days of desperately needed dredging. That extra time is considered crucial in for the commercial and recreational fishermen whose vessels’ ability to navigate through the channel has been prevented or hindered significantly by the shoaling.
“If the Dare County Board of Commissioners had not approved funding for the additional dredging” the project would not have been able to accomplish enough “to make the South Ferry Channel deep enough and wide enough to safely navigate for all the users through the summer,” said Dare County Project Manager Brent Johnson, in a release issued on March 22.
According to the release, this project has faced some challenges. The USACE began a 28-day dredging project within Hatteras Inlet earlier in March in an attempt to break through the shoal that has formed in the South Ferry Channel and rendered the waterway impassable to the vast majority of vessels.
The initial plan for the project called for the sidecaster dredge Merritt to cut through the sandbar and, once the channel was deep and wide enough, for the Murden, a shallow-draft hopper dredge, to complete the project by removing the remaining sand from the channel. However, after four days of dredging, the Merritt had only reached the sandbar that had sealed off the channel, and more time was required to break through the shoaling so that the Murden could be brought in.
At a project update during the March 8 Dare County Waterways Commission meeting, USACE representative Joen Petersen announced that considerably less progress than anticipated had been made to break through the sandbar — due in part to the exceptionally low tides that had occurred during the dredging period.
With the Merritt’s allotted time in the waterway limited and options for alternatives running out, the Waterways Commission sought assistance from the Dare County Board of Commissioners in securing the funds necessary to allow the dredge more time to tackle the shoaling issues taking place in the South Ferry Channel.
In a brief interview with the Voice, Johnson said there has been a recent hiccup in the project because the Merritt ran aground on March 19, broke its rudder and is now headed for repairs. The hope is, he said, that it will be back in action by the end of this week. Dredging of the South Ferry Channel in Hatteras Inlet is expected to be completed the week of April 19, 2021.
For more information about the project, visit www.DareNC.com/Projects or contact Dare County Project Manager Brent Johnson at 252-475-5628 or Brent.Johnson@DareNC.com.
ADVERTISEMENT FOR BID:
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Bid Location and Time: Bid opening will be held in the Barnhill Contracting Rocky Mount Training & GPS Technology Room: 800 Tiffany Bvld, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Time is as follows: January 09, 2024 at 10:00am and 2:00pm. Times per packages to be given on via addendum #01.
Barnhill Contracting Company will receive, open, and read publicly all bids received in person in the Training & GPS Technology Room at the main office and listed with the virtual viewing at the link to be posted on Barnhill’s Plan Room.
Bids will not be accepted from bidders that are not pre-qualified. No facsimile or email submissions are permitted. Sealed bids are to be hand delivered to the bid opening location noted above or mailed Sealed Bids can be delivered before 9:00am the day of the bid to the Barnhill Contracting Company Office at 800 Tiffany Blvd., Suite 200 Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Attention “Clint Hardison.”
The pre-bid meeting will be held in Person & Zoom Meeting on December 06, 2023 at 10:00 am at the Barnhill Contracting’s Rocky Mount Main Conference Room: 800 Tiffany Bvld, Rocky Mount, NC 27804.
The pre-bid meeting link can be located on Barnhill’s online Building Division Plan Room ( https://app.buildingconnected.com/public/54da832ce3edb5050017438b) and below. A preferred brand alternates meeting will be held via the same link at the end of the Prebid meeting.
Bid Documents can be viewed or downloaded through Barnhill’s online Building Division Plan Room (https://app.buildingconnected.com/public/54da832ce3edb5050017438b) after 12/04/2023.
All Bidders are strongly encouraged to include opportunities for HUB participation wherever possible in their respective Bid submission. HUB participation is a part of this contract and must comply with all requirements set forth in the Bid Documents.
The Construction Manager and Owner reserve the right to add pre-qualified bidders. The Construction Manager and Owner reserve the right to reject any and all bids. Should you require additional direction, please call Barnhill Contracting Company, (Clint Hardison – 252-802-0740).
Clint Hardison is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Dare EMS – Phase 2 Pre-Bid Conference
Time: Dec 6, 2023 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 823 9069 2985
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Comments
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Greg Roberts
I would love to see the breakdown explaining why it costs $12,000 per day to operate a dredge.
R. Gregory
Why in the world does it cost $20,000 per day to operate a dredge?!?