Emergency ferry channel dredging will begin on Tuesday

A dredging project to reopen the emergency ferry channel between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 3.

The contractor conducting the bucket-and-barge dredging operation is currently mobilizing at the Rodanthe Harbor site for the work ahead, and the majority of the project is expected to be completed by Friday, September 6.

The emergency ferry channel was created in 2009 by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to bypass washed-out sections of N.C. Highway 12 in northern Rodanthe and Pea Island, and the service has been implemented as a backup transportation route several times since it was established.

Emergency ferry service was used after Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when N.C. Highway 12 between Rodanthe and Oregon Inlet was inaccessible, as well as in 2013 when the aged Bonner Bridge was closed for safety reasons.

Before the service was available, islanders could be cut off from the world for weeks, such as in November 2000 after a storm-tossed barge struck and severely damaged the Bonner Bridge.

At the July Dare County Waterways Commission meeting, it was reported that the N.C. ferry division was concerned that a small and shallow-shoaled area in the Rodanthe basin had created conditions that were too dangerous for ferry travel. Although the remainder of the federal channel in the emergency route is navigable, the lone shoaled spot in Rodanthe had rendered the route inaccessible.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is traditionally responsible for most of the emergency ferry channel’s dredging projects, but there was concern that the Corps would be unable to schedule dredging until the winter of 2024/2025, or a post-storm emergency declaration was issued.

As a result, Dare County stepped in to organize the upcoming dredging event, to ensure a functioning emergency route during the height of the 2024 Hurricane Season.

At the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting on August 5, the Board passed a Resolution to apply for Shallow Draft Navigation Cost Share Funds. This will provide a 75% match from the state for the estimated $140,000 cost of the dredging project, while Dare County would pay the remaining 25%.

An application for a Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) general permit to dredge in the Rodanthe area was approved on August 20, and a contractor was enlisted to complete the work soon after. An estimated 600 cubic yards of material needs to be dredged from a 700 ft. section of the channel, and there is already an existing disposal site adjacent to the channel for the material to be placed.

Dredging the small Rodanthe Harbor would be difficult for the county’s hopper dredge, Miss Katie, which is why a smaller bucket-and-barge dredge operation is being utilized to clear the shoaled area.

According to an update at the Dare County Waterways Commission’s August meeting, the state Department of Transportation, which oversees the ferry division, plans to do its own bucket and barge project to remove shoaling on the Stumpy Point side in the near future. This part of the emergency ferry route is still passable, but the state’s dredging will be a proactive measure to ensure additional shoaling does not occur before the route may be needed.