LBI Beach Replenishment Project On Schedule

About half of the 1.2 million cubic yards of sand slated to be pumped onto beaches in the Brant Beach section of Long Beach Township are in place, officials said this week.

Crews from Great Lakes Dredging, the Corps' contractor, are now working in the area of 45th Street, according to Steve Rochette, spokesman for the Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The project will replenish beaches from 31st Street to 57th Street.

"Our goal is still to complete pumping by Memorial Day," said Rochette. "Although, it depends on weather and the equipment involved with the project."

There were some mechanical issues with the sand pumps involved with the beachfill effort recently, Rochette said, but they have been resolved and project is still on schedule.

Crews could be seen working through the weekend operating the pump screens and moving enormous hills of sand with earth-moving equipment to ready township beaches for the summer season, the unofficial start of which is just over three weeks away.

The beachfill effort works by using a hydraulic dredge to take sand from a donor location offshore, then pumping it 35,000 feet to ocean beaches where it is spread into a beach and dune design developed by the Corps.

Before the sand reaches land, it is sent through a screening device to prevent discarded military munitions from becoming buried on the beach. Munitions were found in nearby Surf City after a beachfill project was completed there in 2007.