#37 Action Shot: Beach Renourishment
A contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began an extensive beach renourishment to restock a 5.5-mile stretch of beach northern Holmes Beach to the southern end of Coquina Beach at Longboat Pass in late June, 2020. The USACE awarded the project to Marinex Construction. The project will place approximately 1.1 million cubic yards of sand on the beach along this 5.5 consecutive miles of Anna Maria Island.
"This beach nourishment management program is very much like a roadway or other such infrastructure, as in once it is built, it must be maintained," said Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director. "The work you see is maintenance that will help ensure continued presence of a sandy beach and storm protection for the upland, as well as provide important nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles and shorebirds."
The awarded project cost is $17.3 million. The federal cost share is $8 million. The State of Florida is contributing $4.6 million and the County is contributing $4.6 million in tourism tax revenues.
The sand will be delivered by barge from an offshore borrow area about 2,000 feet offshore of the north end of Anna Maria Island, near Passage Key. The sand is dredged from the offshore borrow areas by a hydraulic cutter suction dredge, then pumped through a pipeline to the beach as a water/sand slurry. The submerged pipeline comes ashore onto the beach at a designated landing location, and connects to the shore pipeline, which runs laterally along the dry beach. The sand slurry is discharged from the pipeline and bulldozers work the sand to fill the designed construction template.
The dredge is brought into safe harbor when swells are predicted to arrive from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. As the seas calm down and the contractor determines the conditions to be safe, they return the dredge to the sand source and resume beach construction. Completion of this type of production certainly depends on the weather!
Source: www.mymanatee.org/beachproject
#37 Action Shot: Beach Renourishment
A contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began an extensive beach renourishment to restock a 5.5-mile stretch of beach northern Holmes Beach to the southern end of Coquina Beach at Longboat Pass in late June, 2020. The USACE awarded the project to Marinex Construction. The project will place approximately 1.1 million cubic yards of sand on the beach along this 5.5 consecutive miles of Anna Maria Island.
"This beach nourishment management program is very much like a roadway or other such infrastructure, as in once it is built, it must be maintained," said Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director. "The work you see is maintenance that will help ensure continued presence of a sandy beach and storm protection for the upland, as well as provide important nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles and shorebirds."
The awarded project cost is $17.3 million. The federal cost share is $8 million. The State of Florida is contributing $4.6 million and the County is contributing $4.6 million in tourism tax revenues.
The sand will be delivered by barge from an offshore borrow area about 2,000 feet offshore of the north end of Anna Maria Island, near Passage Key. The sand is dredged from the offshore borrow areas by a hydraulic cutter suction dredge, then pumped through a pipeline to the beach as a water/sand slurry. The submerged pipeline comes ashore onto the beach at a designated landing location, and connects to the shore pipeline, which runs laterally along the dry beach. The sand slurry is discharged from the pipeline and bulldozers work the sand to fill the designed construction template.
The dredge is brought into safe harbor when swells are predicted to arrive from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. As the seas calm down and the contractor determines the conditions to be safe, they return the dredge to the sand source and resume beach construction. Completion of this type of production certainly depends on the weather!
Source: www.mymanatee.org/beachproject