Dismal Swamp Canal to Re-Open by End of September, AICW Alternate Route
This PSA announcement just in from the USACE – Update of Canal Status
Donna Stewart
Dismal Swamp Canal to reopen in September
By Kerry Solan
Norfolk District Public Affairs
NORFOLK, Va. – The Dismal Swamp Canal is scheduled to reopen to vessel traffic by the end of September, with the Lake Drummond Reservation and Feeder Ditch opening to canoes and kayaks on August 18, officials said.
Crews continue to dredge the canal, which officials at the Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed due to extensive damage from Hurricane Matthew in October.
“In the history of the canal, we’ve never had this issue, and we’re using every available resource to make the canal safe again for vessels,” said Joel Scussel, Norfolk District Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway project manager.
Engineers completed a survey of the Dismal Swamp Canal in March after crews had finished clearing more than 350 trees from the canal.
That survey, along with another survey in July, revealed controlling depths less than the normal 6 feet: engineers plotted the Deep Creek Channel at 4.8 feet, Tuners Cut was less than 2.5 feet and the Feeder Ditch was shoaled in at a depth of approximately 1 foot.
The crew of Wilmington District’s Dredge Murden completed dredging in the Deep Creek Channel on June 21. After-dredge surveys showed a controlling depth of 6 feet, which allowed officials to reopen the channel to navigation. The Dredge Murden will return at the end of August to complete clean-up adjacent to the Deep Creek Lock.
Feeder Ditch dredging resumes today. The crane crew will dredge 1,500 cubic yards of material to reopen the Feeder Ditch to a depth of 6 feet, 25 feet wide by then end of August.
When crews complete work at the Feeder Ditch, they will return to Turners Cut to complete work that was suspended after the quality of dredged material at Turners Cut did not meet the standards for beneficial reuse. Officials coordinated with the state of North Carolina while a new dredging method was arranged that met state water quality standards.
Engineers are also working on a design for emergency generators for the Deep Creek and South Mills Locks, which were inoperable after the hurricane.
Deep Creek Lock Gate rehabilitation work, which was scheduled before Hurricane Matthew struck, is complete: the gates were reinstalled on July 19 and operating the next day.
When the post-hurricane dredging operations began in the canal, officials aimed to reopen the waterway before October, when perennial “snowbirds” use the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway to travel south, bound for the Bahamas and Florida ports of call.
“Since the hurricane, our goal has been to reopen the canal to navigation as soon as possible,” Scussel said.
Donna Stewart, Director
Dismal Swamp Welcome Center
2356 US Hwy 17N
South Mills, NC 27976
Phone – 252-771-8333
www.DismalSwampWelcomeCenter.com
Bird, Bike, Hike…..take in the sights!
Click Here To View the North Carolina Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For the Camden TDA/Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center
Comments from Cruisers (6)
we were recently cruising along in our 25 foot Rosborough in the Great South Bay off Long Island, NY. Going about 6 knots, when a LARGE sportfish blew by us. He was dangerously close; if I had suddenly turned to port I don’t think he could have avoided us. I just has enough time to turn my bow into his wake; we went up and over and all loose items crashed about the boat. I yelled at him on the VHF; and I rarely do that. A Coast Guard inflatable either heard me, or saw the whole thing, and pulled him over. Finally a little justice for one careless and obnoxious SOB.
Not having no wake zones is a reciepe for even worse damage. The only way to truly enforce no wake is enforcement and law suites. Depressing, but I think it is true. Cost clueless people time and money.
Nov. 2016. Docked at New River (NC) fuel dock on the ICW. A 42′ southbound Sea Ray came blasting through, creating a very large wake that threw my 36′ trawler against the dock; I was on the deck fueling by boat at the time. Fortunately dock hands and my crew were able to get the boat’s name and called them on the radio. The Sea Ray came back, offered the excuse that he didn’t see us because he was looking at his chart or GPS, and gave me his insurance company. The insurance company was very helpful and in the end paid $9,500 in damage repairs. BTW, earlier that day the very same boat came roaring up behind us as we were slowly navigating around a shoal at Browns Inlet. He stopped on a dime when he hit the shoal.
Let’s be perfectly honest – they do not exist in Southwest Florida waters. I feel like starting a website with photos of the 2-4 foot wakes our sailboat has been subjected to with careless, self absorbed, untrained and idiotic powerboaters. Don’t get me started! Stand by and I’ll post the web address.
Having observed this problem for quite a while, especially with large sport fishing boats, I have a theory as to the root of the problem, and it is simply time (or more accurately, the lack thereof). What many of these owners of these large sport fish boats, for example, have is a lot of money. What they don’t have, is a lot of time, having the same 24 hours a day that any bum on the street has. Most of the rich people I know view this as unbelievably unfair and most will spend any amount of money (or fuel, in this case) and are willing to cause any amount off compensable damage, in their never ending attempt to somehow increase their daily allotment of time to 25 hours.
Ten minutes saved by pushing a three foot wake down ten miles of the ICW, and swamping small boaters, and rocking larger boaters, in their path, is an eminently reasonable trade off in their minds. I watched one leave our marina the other day, and he couldn’t even wait to get past the piers in our marina before pushing it up on half plane. Even the dockmaster yelling at him as he went by their office, rocking the boats pulled in to get pump outs and fuel, had no effect.
I have even heard one of these captains that I know say that he would rather write a check for damage he caused than slow down and lose the little time he has before he has to get back to his 60 hour work week to make more money to finance this endless and futile circle. They really think that way. And, I have quit going deep sea fishing with one of my friends because I just couldn’t take the embarrassment of being given the finger over and over again, while knowing we richly deserved it.
Good luck on fixing that mentality. It would take actual jail sentences to even slow it down. And, these are the least likely people to be held criminally responsible for anything in the first place.
James – all I can add to your comments is “AMEN”
All we can do is HOPE and ACT when ever we have the opportunity.