You may have heard about the sand replenishment program about to begin on San Diego beaches this fall. The North County Times did a good story this week about the logistics of the massive project. Here are the details: "The dredge that will be used to give many North County beaches a massive influx of fresh sand this fall has finally finished its East Coast project and is coming west. "It's supposed to hit the Panama Canal Friday or Saturday," said Shelby Tucker, project manager for the San Diego Association of Governments. After cruising through the canal, the dredge ---- a 315-foot-long vessel named Liberty Island-will work its way north and will probably arrive Sept. 2 in Imperial Beach, Tucker added. The dredge will essentially do the heavy lifting in SANDAG's $22.5 million sand-replenishment project, designed to shore up the county's eroding beaches. Oceanside stands to get nearly 300,000 cubic yards of sand through the project ---- the most of any North County city. Cardiff State Beach, which is proposed to get just under 90,000 cubic yards, will receive the lowest amount. The departure of the Liberty Island ---- a "trailing suction hopper dredge" ---- from the Virginia Beach project has been of keen interest to regional officials and leaders of various cities that will receive beach sand. The equipment's arrival date was postponed several times this summer. That worried some North County city officials, who said the fresh sand from the dredge might not last long if it was placed on the beach just before the start of the winter storm season. On Thursday, Tucker said prospects look good for the dredge to come close to meeting the latest version of its San Diego County work schedule. The schedule calls for the dredge to be in Imperial Beach until early October, when it relocates to Oceanside. After Oceanside, the dredge will be off the coast of Encinitas. In early November, it's expected to move to Solana Beach, and it's scheduled to wrap up work in south Carlsbad at the end of November. The dredge ---- provided by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company ---- has the ability to suck sand off the ocean floor from a depth of up to 108 feet, the company's web site states. It has the capacity to hold up to 6,540 cubic yards of sand. After filling up with sand, the dredge motors over to a floating pipe system that connects to the coast and pumps the sand onto beaches. Tucker said that this dredge has double the capacity of the one that the region used for its last big sand replenishment project in 2001. That's going to allow work to proceed much more quickly, she said. The 2001 project lasted six to seven months, and this one will be done in three, she told the Encinitas City Council last week. Longtime Encinitas Councilman James Bond said the new project is also breaking other records ---- it only took five years to get all the required permits. Permitting-related work for the 2001 project began in 1993, he said."
