THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505250189
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
The trucks that are rumbling to Ocean Park Beach with loads of fresh sand are part of a project to replace 50,000 cubic yards of the beach lost to storms that regularly scour the area.
The project will cost $390,000 and is being overseen by Womack Contractors II Inc., the apparent low bidder in a competition to supply the city with sand for the beach.
The public beach at Ocean Park extends along the bay front from Lesner Bridge to Woodlawn Avenue for a distance of approximately 4,800 feet.
When completed, the project will create a 50-foot-wide beach, rising about six feet above the mean tide level.
For a while, it seemed the city might not have to pay anyone for the sand.
Not far from Ocean Park Beach is the site of the impending second Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which is to receive a new span to parallel the existing one. Among the many permits required for the project was one that would give the bridge builder the right to dredge a new barge channel for construction purposes.
That dredging would yield about the same amount of sand that Womack was offering and it would have been free, said Carl A. Thoren, an engineer at the Office of Beach Management.
``The problem was that we didn't know when this was going to happen. It's all up to the bridge tunnel authority and the contractor for the bridge to develop a schedule for when they would do dredging.''
Concerned that the project may not be in time for the sand to be used for the summer, City Council had little choice but to authorize the contract allowing Womack to make sand deliveries.
A question of bad timing?
``Yeah, I think so,'' said Thoren. ``Council decided they wanted it done before this summer season. We just could not get assurances from the tunnel authority that they would be in a position to deliver it in the immediate future.''
The issue is not a total loss, however. Should the barge channel be dredged, the city has struck an agreement that any sand brought up will be dumped into the Lynnhaven stockpile at the Lesner Bridge. by CNB