The largest sand bypass project in the Florida’s Port Canaveral area in more than two decades is set to get underway this week.
The five-month effort will move approximately 1.34 million cubic yards of sand to replenish 3.5 miles of beach south of Port Canaveral.
The Canaveral Harbor Federal Sand Bypass Project (Phase V) will pump sand taken from the shoreline north of Port Canaveral along Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to beaches south of the Canaveral Inlet, from Jetty Park to a half-mile south of the Cocoa Beach Pier.
Locally sponsored by the Canaveral Port Authority, the $18 million federally-authorized project is scheduled to begin this week and last through late April 2019.
The project is fully funded and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with additional funding provided by the Canaveral Port Authority and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Last week, the derrick barge Atlantic from construction contractor Norfolk Dredging Company of Chesapeake, Va., began excavating a trench across the Port Canaveral entrance channel for a temporary pipeline to transport the sand.
The 24-inch-wide pipeline was placed just below the authorized depth of the inlet channel to not impact or interfere with vessels entering and exiting the Port.
The dredge Charleston will pump a mixture of sand and seawater through the pipe, across the inlet and onto the beach. Sand placement will begin about a quarter-mile south of the inlet, proceed north to Jetty Park, then move south along beaches in Cape Canaveral to north Cocoa Beach.
The sand placement initially will widen most of the shoreline by about 150 feet. As the dredged sand naturally moves southward, beaches will maintain their pre-inlet dimensions.
Beach fill work is expected to progress from the Canaveral Inlet to the south at up to 150 feet a day.