Century Engineering, Inc. (Century) provided services to Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Fish and Wildlife for the design of a new boat ramp on the Little River, just south of the Town of Little Creek. The project included a new fishing pier, a new boat ramp and courtesy dock, a new enforcement and fire boat dock, and associated parking areas.
Century’s scope of services included: bathymetric survey; civil/site design; structural design, including the boat ramp, docks, and piers; state and federal environmental permitting; utility design, including site lighting and water supply; fuel tank permitting; floodplain permitting; DelDOT entrance design and permitting; stormwater management design and permitting; and Kent County land use permitting.
Site design was driven by the desire to minimize environmental impacts, meet code necessitated setbacks and buffers, and minimize long term maintenance issues. While the federal wetland line was provided to Century by Division of Fish & Wildlife and the State wetland line was re-created from state wetland maps, during the field concurrence meeting with USACE and DNREC, Wetlands and Subaqueous Lands Section, Century identified an area of high-value Spartina marsh that required a high ratio for mitigation. The site design was revised to avoid impacts to the Spartina marsh. Once the design was revised to minimize impacts to the maximum extent practicable, Century worked in coordination with Fish & Wildlife staff to determine a mitigation plan that included utilizing a mixture of conservation and enhancement of existing wetlands. Due to the highly impactful nature of the project, multiple field and office meetings were required with USACE and DNREC to review the site design, mitigation approach, and permitting requirements.
The project was on an extremely fast-tracked schedule with construction anticipated to start less than 1 year from design NTP. To maintain the accelerated timeline of the design, Century prepared an aggressive submittal schedule that was updated weekly and shared with DNREC. The project also presented numerous challenges. The entire site is in a mapped 100-year floodplain, most of the site is within wetlands, and the adjoining channel is USACE Section 408 regulated. To address the regulatory challenges with this site, Century performed extensive coordination with Division of Fish & Wildlife, DNREC Subaqueous Lands and Wetlands Section, and the USACE. One of the most notable regulatory challenges was USACE Section 408, which authorized the USACE to maintain the channel and prohibits the installation of obstructions in the USACE maintained portion of the channel. Century researched the history of the channel construction and maintenance to determine the portion that was Section 408 regulated and designed the boat ramp, docks, and piers to be compliant with the regulations.
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Fish & Wildlife
Kent County, DE
Project Awards |
ACEC/DE 2020 Engineering Excellence Grand Conceptor Award |
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Fish & Wildlife
Kent County, DE
