THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050470
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A Rudee Inlet sandbar that has snared boaters who try to navigate the shallow channel will be broken down by a dredge, starting next week.
The annual, large-scale dredging will carve out a 10-foot-deep channel in the inlet, which measures only 6 feet deep in some spots. The work will take 20 to 40 days.
The city will pay 49 percent of the $520,000 cost and the Army Corps of Engineers will pay the other 51 percent.
Several boats recently have run aground, occasionally causing significant damage. The February grounding of a $1.5 million yacht virtually ruined the vessel.
Boats run aground there so often that local skippers have nicknamed the sandbar ``The Sand Trap.''
A citizens' task force examining the future of Rudee Inlet recently made improved dredging its top priority, citing the need for better boat access and the improved health of the ecosystem.
The city is supposed to maintain the inlet at a 10-foot depth.
A city dredge is available throughout the year to keep the inlet clear, but the dredge cannot keep up with the constantly shifting sands. And weather conditions generally allow only 115 days of dredging a year.
``The work required is sometimes beyond our scope,'' said Phillip J. Roehrs, city coastal engineer. ``Our dredge is not large enough or manned properly to keep up with the shoaling.''
That's why the city and the Army Engineers bring in a big dredge each spring to deepen the channel in time for the boating season. Sand sucked from the inlet is pumped onto the adjacent beach.
But the spring dredging is not enough to maintain the inlet, which gets clogged with drifting sand every winter.
Roehrs said large-scale dredging is not done more frequently because of costs.
So the city has paid in other ways. Twice, the city was ordered by federal judges to pay claims to boaters whose vessels were damaged in the inlet.
A claim is pending by a Virginia Beach police officer who wrecked his boat on the sandbar in December, causing $25,000 to $30,000 damage.
``I'd rather pay for them to dredge the darn inlet than pay out claims for people who go aground because the city did not take responsibility,'' said Ed Powers, a lawyer who represents the police officer.
Rudee Inlet was created by the city in 1969 as a mecca for boaters. It connects Lake Rudee, Lake Wesley and Owl Creek to the Atlantic Ocean. ILLUSTRATION: Color map
by CNB