Federal funding aids Emerald Isle projects

EMERALD ISLE — Two projects in Emerald Isle give residents and visitors good reason to think ahead to spring.

“We’re anxious for some warm weather,” said Mayor Art Schools as he talked about The Point’s recent boost of sand and work now underway on the extension of its multiuse path popular for walking and biking.

Schools walked the Point area this week and posted photographs and an update on the town’s Facebook page.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ contractor recently completed dredging in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and placed nearly 70,000 cubic yards of sand at the Point.

While it’s a relatively small amount of sand in dredging terms, Schools said it has had a significant impact, widening the beach area and allowing the town to reopen the vehicle access ramp at that spot.

“I went out there (Wednesday) and I couldn’t believe how much sand there was,” he said.

Schools said from the ramp, it was about 200 yards straight out to the inlet high water mark and another 50 yards to the low water mark.

A strip of water near the vehicle access ramp had kept it closed for the early part of the beach driving season, but that area was filled with sand and the ramp was reopened in mid-January.

The sand from the dredging project also filled in areas of water that remained in a section of ocean-front erosion that had nearly been repaired naturally.

A second project began in early January and is scheduled for completion in time for the Easter weekend and possibly earlier.

Schools said the vegetation has been cleared along the site of the extension of the bike path along N.C. 58. The project will add two miles of path from the terminus of the existing path at Black Skimmer Drive and continue east along the south side of N.C. 58.

“This will give us a total of 4.3 miles of multiuse path,” Schools said, noting the existing path is already well-used by visitors and residents walking, jogging and bike riding.

Funding for the $500,000 project comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act federal stimulus money through the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Contact Jannette Pippin at 910-382-2557 or jpippin@freedomenc.com.