Other Active Projects 2020: Wachapreague
Other Active Projects 2020: Wachapreague
The following information provides a background overview for Wachapreague, another active channel project in 2020.
For the project in Spanish, please click here // Para el proyecto en español, haga clic aquí.
For the project in Haitian Creole, please click here // Pou pwojè a an kreyòl ayisyen, tanpri klike isit la.
Website banner image credits: Flickr (1st), Flickr (2nd), Flickr (3rd), Flickr (4th)
Wachapreague Project Overview
The Wachapreague Channel serves as an important fishing center and is a base for recreational, commercial and charter fishing boats. Gasoline, diesel fuel, berths, and some marine supplies can be obtained. Hull and engine repairs can also be made. Wachapreague is a designated working waterfront and provides lodging, restaurants, fishing supplies and sewage pump out stations.
The inlet channel is currently several times wider than it once was due to the coastal erosion of Cedar Island and shoals have been significantly relocated in parts of the inlet channel. Navigation around certain areas is particularly dangerous where shoaling, pilings, ships, and other objects once located on the southern end of Cedar Island are now in or just beneath the water.
The Wachapreague Channel from Day Marker 122 to the Wachapreague Inlet is the Commonwealth/non-Federal portion of the waterway and approximately 4.03 miles in length. It starts from the North-South WCV/VIP Federal Channel of Wachapreague out to the Wachapreague Inlet. The Wachapreague Channel and Finney Creek was dredged in 2020 along with Bradford’s Bay channel. The combined total dredge sediment volume removed from both waterways was 123,000 cubic yards and hydraulically deposited the dredged material into the authorized overboard placement site inside Bradford Bay. The Wachapreague Channel has undergone drastic changes as result of dynamic coastal process and storms. Navigation due to these changes has become dangerous around certain areas for recreational, commercial vessels, and for the USCG as they need to access the Wachapreague area waterways and the Atlantic Ocean from their station located in Wachapreague.
In 2020, Accomack County was awarded $206,500 from the Virginia Port Authority through the Virginia Waterway Maintenance Fund on July 2, 2020 to complete Channel Condition Survey/Base Mapping, Sediment Sampling: Physical & Chemical, develop a beneficial use strategy for dredged material, Permit preparation and submittal, and design construction documents/bid documents for dredging of the channel. On March 19, 2021, a contract was fully endorsed between Waterway Engineering and Surveys and Accomack County to conduct the deliverables of this project.
Stay connected to this webpage to find out when local stakeholder meetings will occur and how YOU can help.
