By Delayna Earley
The Island News
In the middle of a major effort to reduce flooding in downtown Beaufort, someone slipped into a fenced construction area near Waterfront Park late Friday or early Saturday and shut down equipment keeping the work site dry, the second such incident in recent weeks.
The incident occurred at the Charles Street Extension, a short road that leads into Waterfront Park, where crews are working on the city’s $11.9 million Charles and Craven streets stormwater drainage improvement project sometime late on March 6 or early March 7.
According to Beaufort City Manager Scott Marshall, someone tore down a fence surrounding a generator and pump being used at the site.
Kevin O’Dell, spokesman for the South Carolina Office of Resilience, which is overseeing the project, said a city camera captured an unidentified person entering the area.
Although no equipment appears to have been damaged, O’Dell said the individual pressed an emergency stop button on the generator powering the pump.
City officials contacted Gulf Stream Construction Co., the contractor on the project, and crews were able to restart the system.
The pump and generator are essential for keeping large open trenches dry during construction, Marshall said. Without the equipment operating, the trenches could quickly fill with water.
Marshall noted that if rain had occurred while the system was shut down, the situation could have caused significant problems at the site.
Police are investigating the incident. Marshall said it was the second time someone had knocked down the fence protecting the equipment in recent weeks.
The Charles and Craven streets stormwater project is part of Beaufort’s broader effort to address chronic flooding in the historic downtown area.
The $11.9 million project includes replacing drainage pipes that date back to the early 1900s and installing tidal check valves along the waterfront to help prevent high tides and storm surge from pushing water back into the city’s drainage system.
Construction in the area has also led to occasional service disruptions.
Last week, while crews were installing stormwater pipe along Charles Street, a main water line was accidentally struck, interrupting water service to nearby residents and businesses for about 90 minutes.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.