Coastal southeastern North Carolina will receive more than $24.5 million in federal funds for maintenance of beaches and waterways, U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre’s office announced late Monday.

In a news release, McIntyre’s office said that the congressman met with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assistant secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy in March to emphasize the importance of federal funds to North Carolina’s coast and to request funding for several projects in the Corps’ 2013 Work Plan.

“Ensuring federal funds for our coastal communities is one of my highest priorities, and we are thrilled that these funds are coming home to make a difference,” McIntyre said in the release. 

Funds for Corps' projects came from the Further Continuing Resolution Act of 2013. The act provided total Fiscal Year 2012-2013 funding of $4.9 billion for the Army Civil Works program, but that amount was reduced by $254 million as a result of sequestration, said Ann Johnson, spokeswoman for the Wilmington office of the Corps of Engineers.

The allocation of $24,548,804 from the federal fiscal year 2012-13 funds will be distributed among six projects in the work plan.

“These are annual appropriations,” Johnson said.

Operations and maintenance dredging for the Wilmington Port: $16.4 million; Operations and maintenance dredging for the Intracoastal Waterway: $1.9 million; Operations and maintenance dredging in the Cape Fear River above Wilmington: $488,000; studies  in Surf City and North Topsail Beach: $274,000; Wilmington Harbor improvement studies: $50,000; construction in Ocean Isle Beach, Caswell Beach, Oak Island and Holden Beach: $5.5 million.

The "studies" consist of reconnaissance for future dredging: pre-construction, engineering and design work, according to Johnson.

Normally, the Corps’ work plan and related allocations are announced earlier in the year, typically in March, said Andrew Simpson, legislative correspondent for McIntyre’s office.

“The work plan usually comes out after the president’s budget, but this year the budget was severely delayed,” Simpson said.