Posted on May 3, 2018
By Joe LaFurgey, woodTV
Regular visitors to the beach at Grand Have State Park have noticed some big changes recently. The sand has gotten more crowded as the beach has gotten a little smaller.
“There’s not a lot of space for people to play volleyball, have picnics, run around, swim,” Traci Balderas said as she walked the beach Tuesday afternoon.
But beachgoers like her can look forward to having more fun this summer because there will be more beach to play on. By the time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ annual dredging of the channel is complete, there will be another 31,000 cubic yards of sand along the waterfront.
“They’ve lost a lot of material over the last few years due to the high water levels, and we’re trying to get some of that back,” USACE Area Engineer Thomas O’Bryan said. “To provide an extra 100 feet of beach for 1,000, 1,500 feet along is a great benefit to all the locals.”
“Every tenth of a foot that a vessel can get in additional loading depth is about 100 tons of material on that vessel,” O’Bryan said.
A company out of Holland does the work. Using a large machine that essentially acts like a vacuum, it sucks up the sand from the bottom of the channel, making sure it’s 23 feet deep at the lowest average water level.
“It’s absolutely clean sand. We have it tested every year,” O’Bryan said.
The sand is sent down a large black pipe and spills out onto the beach, replacing what erosion took away.
“I think it’s going to be great,” Balderas said. “I think it’s going to open up the beach. It’s going to give people more space to lay out, swim.”
USACE has awarded another contract to do similar work in Holland later this month.
Winds and waves shut down the operation in Grand have Tuesday. If Mother Nature cooperates, crews hope to finish operation in the next day or so.
Source: woodTV
