Ahead of the Mason Inlet dredging scheduled for this winter, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on Monday may approve a nearly $1 million contract for engineering and surveying work.
Per the proposal, the county would stick with Gahagan & Bryant Associates Inc. (GBA), the firm that has worked on the project since Mason Inlet’s relocation ten years ago. A memo to commissioners from the county’s engineering staff called the scope of services “highly specialized and New Hanover County is fortunate to have developed a strong working relationship with an engineer who has been working on the project since the beginning.”
The GBA contract will come up for consideration at the commission’s regular meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in downtown Wilmington’s historic courthouse, 24 N. Third Street. It comes with an estimated cost for services at $989,682, would have a five-year life, and involve the ongoing monitoring and engineering required for the project’s 30-year permit.
Mason Inlet cuts between Wrightsville Beach and Figure Eight Island, whose beach strands will fill out with the roughly 300,000 cubic yards of sand officials expect to dredge up this winter. The total cost is yet to be determined—the permits will have to come in before it’s known—but properties represented by the Mason Inlet Preservation Group—those at northern Wrightsville Beach and on Figure Eight Island—will pay for it, according to the county.
County officials at a work session Thursday explained that Figure Eight’s 544 homeowners would reduce the cost assessed on Wrightsville’s properties through purchases of sand at $5.50 per cubic yard. Representatives from both islands are expected to attend Monday’s county commission meeting, said New Hanover County Engineering Director Jim Iannucci.
“We’re in the process of getting the permits,” Iannucci said. “We have a window between basically the end of November through April to get this project completed.”
New Hanover County oversaw the relocation of Mason Inlet in 2002 to address its southerly movement that threatened north-end Wrightsville Beach structures like Shell Island Resort. Contractors moved the inlet 3,000 feet northward, and sand they pulled up renourished the adjacent beaches, according to GBA, with which the county later contracted to manage the inlet’s new alignment.
Part of GBA’s responsibilities was to determine the need for maintenance projects, three of which have occurred since the relocation.
Persons may view Monday’s agenda packet in its entirety here.
