Cape Cod Canal Dredging Expected to Begin in December

The work to dredge the Cape Cod Canal and renourish Town Neck Beach in Sandwich is expected to begin in mid-December, according to Sandwich Town Manager Bud Dunham.

“It needs to be finished by the end of March because of some environmental windows that the dredging company needs to work in,” Dunham said.

Dunham said the end of March deadline shouldn’t be an issue.

“The actual work itself, provided they get decent weather, really doesn’t take all that long – six to eight weeks,” he said.

Dunham said the only worry is if “we get a string of bad weather some point this winter.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held off finalizing a work contract until the final funds from the town were received.

Town meeting voters approved an additional $600,000 in Community Preservation Funds towards the project earlier this month after bids for the work came in higher than expected.

Previous funds of $1.2 million was approved in September.

Dunham said he hopes the weather cooperates and the project can be finished.

“The way the project has gone I’m not holding my breath because it has been a long fight,” he said.

The project has been plagued by delays. Earlier this year, private property owners along the beach refused to grant the Army Corps of Engineers permanent easements over their land earlier this summer.

The Army Corps said for the project to move forward the easements were necessary.

Town officials continued to discuss a solution to get the sand after the deadline for the permanent easements had passed.

A Land Court judge ruled against a group of neighbors seeking to block the re-nourishment project in October.

The neighbors filed a preliminary injunction stating that the town was acting in spite by choosing to place 150,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the Cape Cod Canal solely on Town Neck Beach instead of in front of the neighbors’ properties.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which is dredging the canal and agreed to the place the sand on the beach, required permanent easements from the neighbors. The neighbors claimed that the permanent easements were not necessary and would devalue their properties.

Dunham said getting the dredged material for the Beach was a necessity.

“Our environmental consultants have done a lot of studies in terms of rates of erosion loss and it’s fair to say that in the last decade Sandwich has lost more than in the last 150 years based on their studies,” he said. “It’s really important for us to do something to protect things as best we can.”