Feds Triple Funding For Short-Term Inlet Dredging Work

OCEAN CITY — While it remains to be seen how the local share of a proposed $1.2 million study of a long-term solution to the Inlet shoaling problem will be patched together, continued short-term maintenance dredging got a fiscal shot in the arm this week.

The federal Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) this week announced an additional $500,000 for continued maintenance dredging at the Ocean City Inlet has been added to the Corps’ already approved $250,000. The funding, which essentially triples the money earmarked for occasional dredging of the Inlet navigation channel in Ocean City, was allocated through the Army Civil Works Program.

The ACE fiscal year 2018 budget already included $250,000 for the continued dredging of the Inlet. The special allocation approved by Congress and announced by ACE officials on Monday represents a different allocation and helps ensure the occasional maintenance dredging carried out by the corps’ shallow draft dredge vessels Murden and Currituck will continue throughout the next year.

“Long story short, as far as the Ocean City Inlet is concerned, the recently announced fiscal year 2018 work plan clarifies that the Army Corps Baltimore District will be receiving $750,000 in navigation-specific funding for the Ocean City Inlet, which is $500,000 more than was originally proposed for the Inlet in the fiscal year 2018 budget,” said Chris Gardner of the ACE Baltimore District Corporate Communication Office. “This money will be used to dredge the Inlet over the course of the next year or so, based on the conditions of the channel and the availability of shallow-draft dredges such as the Currituck and Murden.”

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