Myrtle Beach receives $30M to expand deepwater outfall systems; construction to begin fall 2023

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - The city of Myrtle Beach continues its plans to redirect stormwaters away from the beaches with deepwater outfalls.

Myrtle Beach received $30 million from the state of South Carolina, which was approved as part of the year’s state budget, to build the city’s fifth outfall since 1998.

The project will take place at 24th North Avenue and the installation will include “dual 84-inch pipes to serve 208 acres of drainage basin” according to the city.

The project is expected to start in the fall of 2023 and the estimated completion date is April 2025.

“When this project is finished in 2025, that spring, we’ll be able to remove 11 pipes from the beach,” said Mark Kruea, spokesperson for the city of Myrtle Beach. “So this collects it, sends it through large pipes underneath the ocean, out into the ocean far enough to where its quickly diluted, and it does improve out water quality but also the helps with the quantity of the water that flow in the area.”

The project will be split into two phases that will occur seaward and landward.

The seaward phase will start first. It includes the installation of the outfall pipes from the west side of Ocean Boulevard and stretches through 24th Avenue North, the beach and outward 1,500 feet under the Atlantic Ocean.

The landward phase includes the installation of lateral header pipes along the boulevard and focuses on the capture overflow from the existing stormwater pond located at the old Myrtle Square Mall site.

The city has worked with the EPA in part of its clean water infrastructure plans since the late 1990s and invested more than $75 million in stormwater management projects.

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