Residents of Wrightsville Beach’s south end are weary of dredging crews working long hours in the waters near their houses, especially since Kure Beach’s oceanfront — not Wrightsville’s — will reap the benefits of this latest project.
Over the past several weeks, crews in Banks Channel have been working from dawn until well after dusk, south end resident Guy Wiggins said, disturbing him and at least two-dozen of his neighbors with noise and lights.
“It looks like a city out there,” he said, adding that over the holidays he and his houseguests weren’t able to sit outside on their porch because “the roar is just annoying.”
Wrightsville Beach has laws regulating construction hours, including holidays, to minimize disturbances to residents, but the barges are located in federal waters outside of the town’s jurisdiction.
Wiggins said the barges are anchored about 300 feet from his dock. Similar equipment has been there off and on for the past three years, he said, which is frustrating because of how much he and his neighbors pay to live in a quiet waterfront neighborhood.
“You’re in a residential area looking out at a commercial zone quite often,” he said. “I’m guessing the last 24 months or so, there’s been some type of equipment out there probably 15 months.”
The deep water at that location provides dredging crews passage as they carry equipment for a variety of projects like 2014 Masonboro Inlet jetty repairs and Wrightsville’s beach renourishment.
Wiggins admitted the disturbances are more tolerable when the work benefits Wrightsville Beach, but this staging area is part of Carolina and Kure Beach’s renourishment.
Carolina Beach’s oceanfront is rebuilt with sand pumped out of Carolina Beach inlet, but Kure Beach’s sand is pumped from an offshore site, Wrightsville Beach Town Manager Tim Owens said. It’s that offshore dredging equipment that is staged in Banks Channel.
“They’re having to take all the piping and all the equipment out of this inlet because Carolina Beach [inlet] is not very navigable for that large of equipment,” he explained.
The dredges should have been out of Banks Channel by now, he added, but the contractor experienced weather delays. Not long after those dredges move out, new ones will arrive, he said, to finish Masonboro Inlet jetty repairs this spring. Then in winter 2017-18, more equipment will be required for another Wrightsville Beach renourishment project.
“It’s a lot of activity in these few years,” he said, “but hopefully we’ll get back to normal.”
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