Maryland Governor, Larry Hogan, and Secretary of Natural Resources, Mark Belton, joined members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore District team yesterday to observe beach renourishment at Ocean City, MD.
During the visit, Governor Hogan said: “Now most people are aware of how great the beaches are here, but what most visitors don’t realize is Ocean City’s prime attraction, this legendary beach, is also a very important part of a massive project to protect Ocean City and our coastal shoreline from powerful coastal storms and hurricanes.”
The $12.7 million renourishment scheme, conducted by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company (GLDD), involves the placement of roughly 900,000 cubic yards of sand on the Ocean City beaches to restore the engineered beach berm to its full design elevation.
This massive effort is part of an ongoing project to protect the barrier island from Atlantic storms; it’s credited with saving hundreds of millions of dollars in damage since the 1990s, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The coastal storm risk management project at Ocean City consists primarily of the 8-plus mile-long wide, flat beach berm constructed to 7 feet above mean high tide, backstopped by a concrete-capped steel sheet pile bulkhead along the boardwalk and a vegetated sand dune north of the boardwalk to the Maryland-Delaware state line.
Renourishment of the beach is part of the long-term construction schedule of the coastal storm risk management project.