Emergency Dredging Set For Double Creek Channel

BARNEGAT BAY — Emergency dredging is set to begin at the entrance of Double Creek Channel, the state’s primary ocean-going entrance into Barnegat Bay, after a late September nor’easter left the waterway in unsafe condition, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

NJDOT said its contractor, H&L Construction LLC, will begin setting pipe on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and is expected to begin hydraulic dredging on or about Thursday, Oct. 15. The approximately $1 million project will continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week until completion, which NJDOT said is expected by early November.

According to NJDOT, the condition of Double Creek State Channel degraded after the storm “to a point where the shoal is a navigational hazard, and the safety of the boating public is a concern.” The agency said emergency dredging is needed “to return the waterway to a safe condition, while beneficially using the sand, maintaining the sediment in the system and protecting the resource from further degradation.”

The project is expected to remove up to 40,000 cubic yards of sand shoaled in the channel and restore it to a safe navigable depth. NJDOT said Double Creek Channel has shoaled across its entire width. At the entrance, water depth is 3 feet at mean low water to 1.5 feet or less with tide and wind, according to the agency.

The channel will be dredged from the entrance for about 1,200 feet and down to 7 feet at mean low water, NJDOT reported. The department also said Barnegat Inlet is one of the most dynamic navigable inlets on the East Coast, and that the Double Creek entrance channel lies at the head of the inlet’s flood shoal.

Boaters are being warned to use caution around the work zone. NJDOT said the pipeline will be marked with buoys and lights, and full channel closures are not expected. If closures are needed, the agency said they will be communicated through the Local Notice to Mariners and on social media.

State Aids to Navigation will be removed as necessary during the project, according to NJDOT. The agency advised the public to stay alert for the pipeline, buoys, dredge and other equipment, and said no one should approach the construction site or related equipment. Boaters should travel at no wake speed in active work zones, and the dredge and working equipment can be reached on Channel 63 to communicate safe passage near or around the equipment.

Questions about the project can be directed to the NJDOT Community Relations Office at 609-963-1982 or dot-ccr.communityrelations@dot.nj.gov.