Project due to start inlet’s shift to the north – Coastal Observer

Project due to start inlet’s shift to the north – Coastal Observer

Work that faces a Nov. 30 deadline will begin this week to relocate Pawleys Inlet and rebuild the beachfront in the Prince George community. PG Inlet Partners, which owns the property where the new inlet will be dredged, received permits from the state Bureau of Coastal Management and Army Corps of Engineers with special conditions within the last week. It took some time to get the permits, Town Council Member Paul Groce said during its meeting this week.  Steven Traynum, president of Coastal Science and Engineering, which designed the project, had expected the work to be underway by now. “They’re kind of pressed up against a pretty tight timeline,” Groce said.  “That’s their challenge. We’ll see,” Mayor Brian Henry said. The work may take up to 45 days, according to the permit. It will be completed by the Robert Collins Co., which did work on the island after Hurricane Ian in 2022.  It must cease work if it’s not completed by the November deadline, according to Dan Newquist, the town administrator, and resume next summer. The timing restraints are to reduce any impacts to shorebirds and marine plants and animals. The permits are valid for five years. The work follows the settlement of lawsuits brought by Prince George property owners after the inlet at the south end of Pawleys Island began migrating father south. The suits claimed the shift was caused by a renourishment project completed by the town in 2022. The inlet is now more than half a mile from where it was located before the renourishment. The settlement between the property owners, the town, its contractors and two state agencies provided $4 million for the work, including the purchase of 16 acres south of the parking lot. The project will cut a new inlet 1,000 feet south of the public parking lot on the island’s south end. The project should have minimal impact to the island’s south end and shouldn’t cause closures to the public parking lot, Newquist said. Safety signage and fencing will be installed on the south end to discourage beach-goers from entering the area. “They’ll be down there on the beach itself for a day or two,” he said. There will be annual monitoring required for a three-year period to see how the inlet “reacts” to the project, Newquist said. The reports must include beach profile data and analysis to document beach width, dune condition and sand volume changes over time. The work will start by digging a channel across the south end of the island and using the sand to build a dike between the spit and Prince George. That work will be done from the island side. The work with excavators, trucks and bulldozers will then shift to Prince George, he said. Sand from the spit will be used to rebuild the dune. The new inlet will widen beyond the initial channel to about 300 feet. The water is expected to be about 5 feet deep at low tide. It will take about five days to excavate the channel, and Traynum suggested the town limit public access to the new inlet for another week as a safety precaution.