The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge MURDEN arrived in Ocean City Friday and began carrying out Assateague Bypass dredging operations Saturday.
According to the Corps, the MURDEN is scheduled to work in the area for about a month, and will be removing material from in and around the channel, with an emphasis on the ebb and flood shoals in which sand is traditionally trapped while naturally moving south toward Assateague Island.
The vessel is expected to dredge roughly 35,000-40,000 cubic yards of material during this bypass operation.
USACE reported that approximately 5,000-10,000 cubic yards of that material will be dredged from the navigation channel. Based on the most recent surveys, efforts in the channel will focus on the area between buoys 11 and 12 and near the Coast Guard dock in the area of buoys 8 and 10, both of which are traditional shoaling hot spots.
Dredged material is place south of the inlet, just offshore of Assateague Island. The regularly-scheduled bypass dredging is generally performed twice a year to assist with sediment transport across the inlet south to Assateague Island – mitigating impacts to natural sediment transport caused by the Ocean City Inlet and its jetties.
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