VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Army Corps of Engineers will begin dredging the Rudee Inlet Federal Navigation Project here Monday.
The Corps’ dredge Merritt, based out of Wilmington, N.C., will dredge for four days to remove shoaling in the channel.
Engineers expect to dredge about 20,000 cubic yards of material, which will be placed directly north of the entrance channel and inlet jetties.
The $78,000 project is 72 percent federally funded. Virginia Beach will fund the remaining 28 percent.
Rudee Inlet is designated as a critical harbor of refuge and is located on the Atlantic Ocean side in Virginia Beach. The project provides access to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean for commercial fishing vessels, charter fishing boats, head boats and a wide range of private recreational vessels.
Background:
In the Army Corps of Engineers’ role as supervisor of the harbor, Norfolk District ensures that vessels from the smallest recreational boat to the largest container ship will be able to transit the area’s waterways safely. The Corps performs maintenance dredging to deepen or maintain navigable waterways that may have become too shallow because of shoaling from sediment, sand or mud. When possible, the district uses the dredged material from these projects for beach nourishment, habitat restoration, oyster ground restoration, marsh creation or other beneficial uses.
The Norfolk District maintains more than 70 navigation projects throughout Virginia.