Ocean Shores completes emergency berm; Ecology will survey work as city pursues larger shore-protection grant

City staff reported that an emergency berm installation is nearly complete and that the Washington State Department of Ecology will survey the completed work early next week to document the berm and observe wave interaction.

Staff said the short-term berm was installed rapidly and that engineers will use the Ecology survey to inform longer-term shoreline measures. City staff said they are preparing a grant application for a larger shoreline project; during the meeting staff stated a rough request range of $5 million to $7 million and said engineers had been leaning toward approximately $6 million in preliminary planning estimates.

Why it matters: the berm work is intended to reduce immediate coastal damage and inform engineering for a longer-term solution; the larger project would be a multi-million-dollar capital effort requiring external grant funding and further engineering.

Discussion and context: staff noted the berm was completed quickly and that consulting engineers (named in the meeting as Vladimir Zevs and others) had been impressed by the speed and structural condition of the emergency work. City officials said they would apply for a larger grant (described in the meeting as a “Bridal grant”) to pay for the longer-term measures, and that Ecology’s survey will provide documentation engineers need to develop final designs.

No formal council action or vote was recorded during the update; staff presented next steps and said they will provide future reports as Ecology completes its survey and as grant applications move forward.