The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received $2.8 million from Congress to make emergency repairs to the Coos Bay North Jetty, damaged during last winter’s storms.

The funding comes from the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill, passed earlier this year. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., requested the funding in a letter to the House Appropriations Committee Chairman.

“It is imperative that the damage done in Coos Bay be repaired in a timely manner,” DeFazio said in a press release. “If the jetty is not fixed soon, it will continue to deteriorate, and the price of fixing it will rapidly escalate.”

The total cost of repairing the jetty is $4.8 million, said Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Jennifer Sowell. Along with the $2.8 million emergency appropriation, about $1.2 million of Coos Bay dredging funds has been diverted to finance the repairs, as well as $800,000 from other projects.

“We will get a little less dredging done,” she said. “The jetty repairs were more critical.”

The Corps will use more than 33,000 tons of rock to fix three areas of the jetty that were damaged during storms in December. If the repairs aren’t made, the jetty is at risk of breaching, said Natalie Richards, project manager of the repair work.

This is not the first time repairs have been needed on the North Jetty. It was damaged six years ago, requiring emergency work to keep it sound.

Eventually, the Corps of Engineers will need to make comprehensive repairs to both the north and south jetties, said Martin Callery, director of communications and freight mobility for the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay.

“It is not unusual,” he said. “Up and down the coast, most ports will tell you they have problems with jetty components.”

Work on the Coos Bay Jetty is scheduled to begin in September.