IslandVibesIOP.com 5 Though Isle of Palms has faced increasing environmental challenges in the last two decades from severe flooding and beach erosion, NEWS Intracoastal Waterway dredging digs for flooding, erosion answers Beach renourishment funding saves IOP $4.5M By L. C. Leach III Beach bags to backpacks By Laura Fogarty USACE efforts are renourishing critical areas on IOP's western end. one endeavor appears to be solving two problems at once: dredging excess sand from the Intracoastal Waterway around the IOP Connector and transferring it to highly-eroded areas between 10th Avenue and 2nd Avenue in the western part of the island. The project, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is not only creating a safer and more navigable waterway, but is also bolstering the island’s ongoing beach renourishment efforts in places that otherwise would either be gradually worn away or cost the city millions to prevent. “The sediment is being excavated from the placement areas and transported hydraulically via dredge to the beaches adjacent to Breach Inlet on Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island,” said project manager engineer Jacob Kyzar, USACE Charleston District. “We also conducted emergency dredging in the navigation channel to address shoaling that was impacting safe passage. To date, we have placed close to 200,000 cubic yards of material on Isle of Palms.” The project began in fall 2024 and is scheduled for completion by winter 2025. Once finished, it will have placed approximately 600,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach – at no cost to the city for either the dredging or the placement. It is being financed through the USACE’s Operation & Maintenance funds for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. “The beneficial use placement sites on Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island were selected based on their proximity to the dredged material placement areas along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway,” Kyzar said. “We plan to continue partnering with the City of Isle of Palms to use the beach as a beneficial use placement site.” However, the work has required a certain amount of adjustment for both residents and visitors due to the extra noise, lights at night, loss of parking and closures to portions of the beach. “This project is a learning experience for both the city and USACE,” said City Administrator Douglas Kerr. “Final judgment about its effectiveness will need to be reserved until the end of the project.” Kyzar pointed out that future maintenance dredging of the Intracoastal Waterway will be required, so the key to future partnering efforts will likely entail finding a balance among cost, necessity and resident inconvenience. “There is potentially an offsetting benefit of restoring portions of a highly-eroded beach at no financial cost,” Kerr said. “To do this ourselves would cost about $4.5 million. And because beach restoration work is so expensive, it would be an enormous benefit if the project is successful and can be replicated in the future.” It is hard to believe it’s already that time of year again but the season of back to school is upon us. Time to leave the surfboard and sand behind and venture on to new backpacks and books, classrooms and computers, homeroom and homework. Fall is just around the corner and the first day of school will be here before we know it. Such was the inspiration for this month’s cover. It is not often we get to work with professional models for our cover photo shoot but for August, we were blessed with two such talents. Manning and Annabelle Rosen, along with their parents, Arthur and Candace, moved to the island from New York in 2017. Manning, a rising fifth grader at Sullivan’s Island Elementary School, is an avid surfer and enjoys playing video games in his spare time. Annabelle is a gymnast and a rising third grader at SIES. The Rosen family graciously allowed us to use their backyard as a backdrop for this cover photo session. To say it was hot on that particular afternoon would be an understatement, but Manning and Annabelle remained professional and on task throughout. The shoot was not without complications, but thanks to the vision and diligence of photographer Rachel Basye of Cooper River Photography, the spirit of back-to-school time on the island was captured perfectly. Whether you love back-to-school time or not, we can take solace in the knowledge that summer is far from over. We have many warm days still ahead of us and eventually the first cool days of autumn might give us a more quintessential back-to-school vibe. Photo by Rachel Basye, Cooper River Photography.
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