BOARDWALK
The Ocean City Boardwalk has been completely demolished between Plaza Place and Eighth Street, and a rows of pilings are now in place across a half-block of the work area.
The installation of the substructure marks good progress in a project to reconstruct the one-and-a-half-block stretch of the boardwalk. The work is expected to be complete by mid-March, but with continued good weather and with sections of boardwalk decking already constructed off-site, the work possibly could be complete before then.
The project is the third phase of a multiyear effort to rebuild the Ocean City Boardwalk between Fifth Street and 12th Street. Walters Marine Construction of Ocean View has a $1,888,347 contract to do the job.
Boardwalk cyclists and pedestrians have been detoured around the construction area since October.
BEACH
The dredge Illinois is ready to pump sand onto the beach in Strathmere, and on Sunday was moored just off Corson’s Inlet.
The Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company has been hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to return to a job it finished in September.
The project brought 1.6 million cubic yards of sand to Ocean City’s south end. (By comparison, it would take only about 1.37 million cubic yards to fill the entire Empire State Building with sand (according to the Empire State Building fact sheet).
But a northeast gale that arrived shortly after the completion of the project eroded a substantial amount of the new sand. The touch-up project will bring 323,000 cubic yards back to Ocean City.
The work will begin in Strathmere and proceed to Sea Isle City before finishing up in Ocean City later this winter.
