thats got nothing to do with the new bridge....they are pumping sand from the beach on the south side of the inlet to the beach on the north side because the jetties block the natural south to north flow of sand. Its been done for the last 20 years or so. ever notice the big red crane on the ss? Thats holding the other end of the pipe with the suction pump.
Mitchell is correct concerning IRI. In 1992 the state started pumping sand from the SS to the NS to help with the sand walls (sometimes as high as 8') that would form on NS due to the inlet splitting the natural flow of sand from SS so that there was actually a beach for visitors to enjoy instead of a cliff for surfers to slide or jump down while going out to ride. Man, I miss those breaks though. especially the wedging peak that used to break off the SS rocks. And as far as digging sand 'out' of dewey, i have no clue what you are talking about. Yes, we did have some pretty decent sandbars for a 4 year stretch in the beginning of the millenium as well as back in the 80's and early 90's, but our waves were lost to them pumping sand in, not 'taking' it out. That photo is not photoshopped, some years, that is a daily occurence.
good questions.. Dewey has been a fun and punchy wave at times in the past (kind of reminded me of OCMD)...even for a time in the 1990s AFTER nourishment when some finer grained sand was pumped onto the beach from Hens and Chicken Shoals, proving to me at least, that with the right sand beach nourishment isnt a surf killer. Complaints by fishermen, to the National Marine Fisheries Service, that the shoals borrow site was right on prime fishing grounds has eliminated that potential source of good sand for beaches. The digging out you might be thinking about was mostly done in Rehoboth and Dewey last year where some gravel had accumulated in the deep water right off the edge of the beach and was removed with an excavator. IMO that little project had no effect on the surfing...the conditions were already horrible before the gravel was removed.
I completely agree. Shorebreak is dangerous for everyone. Tourists try to bodysurf shorebreak and end up getting pounded headfirst into the beach and breaking their neck. I cringe everytime I see this in dewey/rehoboth.
Don't forget the pump house on the SS, I took the picture about 3 weeks ago; ironically all of that pumped sand is now gone. I was just at the inlet on Monday and the square foundation is already exposed. There was significant over-wash all the way to the concrete walkway.
I watched them once in Dewey - they pumped sand from the bar onto the beach. Result: Wider beach, No sandbar, and shorepound. Its never been the same since that time, sometime in the early 2000's
So you'd rather let the ocean come in and destroy the buildings and the tourism industry along with it? That's fine if you think that, but I'm sure you can see that that is not a viable alternative for the government to accept. (Unless they go broke). I'm simply saying if you have a better alternative to what they are doing that would save money or do the job better exc exc. Do something to get the word out. Maybe they are doing this every year because they just don't know any better.... There is always posts complaining about how dumb they are for doing this but I've never seen anyone with a better idea who said they tried to tell the government the better idea. If you have a better idea put it together and use the forum to get some people behind it....
There really isn't any permanent option, the situation will come to a point where sea level rise and erosion will inhibit any type of beach replenishment from being viable. This notion will probably occur within the next 50 years. The few property owners the engineering projects protect will be out of luck.
I am not an ocean engineer but what about selective pumping or beach sculpting? The one size fits all BS really has proven it does not work. I think it would be good to figure out how to build up the sand bars instead of making the beach bigger. But tourists don't come here to see nice sand bars. The larger "nicer" beaches draw people. My proposal would be to build up the sandbars and then monitor the sandbars and have a boat drop a load of sand in areas hard hit and allow the currents to distribute accordingly. When I was at Kirra a bunch of years ago during the super bank time, I thought that there was a boat selectively dropping sand at places and I thought possibly with some input from Rabbit? Imagine if we can do something right and get a sick barreling long ass wave out of it? I think it is possible if the right person is giving scientific input...
Dredging clearly has some short term benefit in protecting the beach size and tourism industry, which is why they continue to do it.
Wankeer is right on with this one. The beginning of summer at Chinco we dropped a bunch of sandbags and tied them to a buoy where a nice sandbar shaped like a point had been created by the winters noreasters. It really made a difference and we've had a terrific surf spot all summer. It also helped create alot of other good sandbars nearby. Of course the buoy is gone now and the hurricanes havehad their way but it really made a difference.
Mitchell, thanks for the insight. Now it all makes sense. So that's their solution? To have that crain there to pump it over from south side. I'm assuming and taking a big leap here, but after the bridge is finally finished in 2020, they're going to permantely attach the pipe to the bridge and let that cyphen out the sand or whatever instead of holding it up with a big, ugly craine.
the pipe is attached to the old bridge and will be attached to the new bridge. The Crane is just to move around the end of the pipe where they suck up the sand from the SS beach so it doesn't just create a deep hole in one spot.
Oh, like the sink hole my foot went into the other day when I was leaving. Walked along the water's edge and suddenly i sank down to my shin. Gotcha.
