Delaware will see $25 million in emergency dune repairs after flooding on Indian River Inlet, Route 1

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Indian River Inlet will get $10 million in federal funding for a large-scale beach replenishment project — that’s on top of the $15 million the state gave to the effort earlier this month.

Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control held a public meeting Tuesday evening at Bethany Beach Town Hall to update residents on the issue. Those familiar with the situation say the $25 million will help to stop the bleeding for now, but a longer-term fix is still needed.

The dune on the northeast end of the inlet bridge was breached Aug. 18, due to Hurricane Ernesto. The high tide, powerful winds and waves caused by the hurricane breached the dune and forced the closure of Route 1, according to DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin in a Sept. 6 editorial in The News Journal. Garvin said the agency was short of the funds it needed, but a spokesperson for Gov. John Carney confirmed that $15 million was approved for the ongoing daily work and emergency replenishment.

“This area is one of the most visible signs of the increasing effect of storms on our state,” Carney said in a statement released earlier this month. “State crews have been engaged in continuous repair work over the last month, but we are still seeing threat to the dunes and the highway at many high tides, so we need to put larger protections into place in the near term.”

The August breach was the second time the Coastal Highway infrastructure has been threatened in the past several months by water from the Atlantic Ocean because the dune required emergency repair from DNREC and the Delaware Department of Transportation. Sand dunes provide natural protection against storm surges and high waves by preventing or minimizing flooding and infrastructure damage.

Rep. Ron Gray (R-Selbyville) says his constituents are concerned about the bridge remaining passable. He says everyone from first responders to residents heading to work use it daily.

“It’s the major thoroughfare that without it, there would be a 45-minute detour to go around,” he said. “So not only the convenience, but it’s public safety. If someone needs hospital facilities or emergency facilities, it’s a direct route up to Beebe Hospital from south of the inlet.”

Gray said there’s two pieces to the repairs: the near-term dredging project and work to make the sand bypass system operational again. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the bypass is designed to move “approximately 100,000 cubic yards of sand annually to nourish the beach on the north side of the inlet jetty.”

The north side beach at the Indian River Inlet in Delaware Seashore State Park has been closed for weeks as DNREC has worked to replenish and fortify the dune.

DelDOT is expected to add additional sheets of steel in coming weeks, installed vertically into the ground to create a wall and protect the roadway bed, Carney’s news release said. It also said that DNREC has identified a dredging contractor that can mobilize in late November to begin the significant renourishment project to restore the beach and dune system. A spokesperson for DNREC said the federal funds will support future phases of this effort, likely in 2025.

Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth) and Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes) represent the north side of the inlet beach. Huxtable said the sand bypass system hasn’t been working for about four or five years, causing a deficit on the northern side of the Indian River Inlet and jeopardizing infrastructure and public safety there and at the Delaware Seashore State Park.

“It’s just too dangerous right now, and we need a substantial amount of beach renourishment,” Huxtable said.

Garvin said in his opinion piece that work on the bypass system is expected to be completed by December.

The $10 million in federal funding for the beach replenishment project came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“This funding will help Delaware and the Army Corps of Engineers implement a long-term plan to secure the dunes and protect the infrastructure surrounding the Indian River Inlet Bridge,” Sen. Tom Carper said in a news release announcing the federal dollars.

Some long-term support can be seen in provisions Carper added to the 2022 Water Resources Development Act, according to a news release. Those include extending federal support for the dredging project to 2084, directing the Army Corps of Engineers to address recreational facility damage caused by a lack of Army Corps maintenance and directing the Army Corps to renourish the state beach north of the Indian River Inlet when the sand bypass plant is either not operating or operating poorly.