Cape Henry Beach Replenishment update

Two emails, one from Mr Adams Public Works COVB & one from Mr Tolson Army Corp.

Subject: FW: Update on Cape Henry Beach Sand Replenishment

Todd,

We will not be able to attend the SDCC meeting tonight. The attached map delineates the dredging and corresponding sand placement areas. The contractor began dredging and sand placement along Cape Henry Beach yesterday, Sunday June 23. The Cape Henry placement is scheduled to take 30-45 days to complete. The dredging from Broad Bay Channel will be placed in the Maple Street Dredge Material Management Area (DMMA) and the small amount of dredging in the Narrows will be placed on the park beach.

Please contact me should you have any questions or require additional information. For now, please direct any project concerns to my attention.

Respectfully,

Dan

Daniel F. Adams, P.E.

Coastal Program Manager

City of Virginia Beach
Public Works Engineering / Water Resources
Municipal Center, Building #2
2405 Courthouse Drive
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23456
Ph. (757) 385-4783
dadams@vbgov.com

And from Army Corp Project Manager:

Subject: RE: [Non-DoD Source] RE: Cape Henry Beach Replenishment – Project Update #1Subject: RE: [Non-DoD Source] RE: Cape Henry Beach Replenishment – Project Update #1

Mr. Solomon,

I apologize for I am out of town this week and unable to attend the meeting. Feel free to distribute my email for residents to reach out to me. To hopefully dispel any major concerns regarding what you mentioned below, we have language in our specifications that says the Contractor shall, to the maximum extent practicable, limit the construction noise on the beach from 7PM – 7AM.

In addition, Cottrell is a good contractor who has completed a lot of beach placement projects in the past, including this project (last time Cape Henry got material in 2009). This should make them efficient in the beach placement work and minimizing their noise disruptions. They brought a large dredge plant for this project, ~19″ discharge, so we expect them to complete work relatively quicker than what we originally projected. I haven’t received a project schedule in a couple of weeks but I estimate them to complete Cape Henry Beach work by end of July, maybe into the first week of August (the variance on this is high). The 500 foot fenced off construction sections of beach will probably be moving west to east at an average pace of 48 hours. Some sections will have more fill than others to achieve the desired consistent berm prism along the entire length of the beach placement area (a target elevation of +7 feet Mean Lower Low Water) and thus take longer.

Please tell the community to use caution when navigating vessels in the proximity of the dredge and dredge pipeline. Also, please inform residents to use caution around the beach placement construction areas. The Contractor will have watches for those who get to close to the construction zone. Please be aware and cautious of dredge pipe that lay on the beach and cross at areas that sand ramps have been constructed over the pipe.

Something that residents may not be aware of that could be communicated at the meeting and limit confusion is that the sandy dredged material placed on the beach may not look like the present material. It is likely to be significantly darker and smell (the smell is contributed to any organic material that has accumulated on the bottom of the Federal Project). The material will be bleached over time by sunlight and the smell will go away relatively soon as the organics are exposed to air and biodegrade.

Please let me know if you or the community have any questions.

Regards,
Chris

Christopher B. Tolson
Design Section, Operations Branch
Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Office: (757) 201-7012