By Mike Busch 2-19-2020
After several weeks of preparation by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, the first sand started pumping onto the beach to protect Dune Road and the businesses overlooking the Ocean near Shinnecock Inlet.
If you missed the storms and erosion that led to this click here.
I just happened to pull up on Saturday morning just before the first sand started hitting the beach and was able to capture a lot of the scene with my drone.
When I arrived, The Illinois, a huge Cutter Suction dredge, was stationed offshore just south of the east Jetty. Boaters will be happy to know that the initial sand is being taken off the bar, making a safer and deeper inlet entrance. I wasn’t sure exactly how this kind of dredge worked so I found an interesting video below that illustrates a similar operation.
Weather permitting, this will be a 24 hour a day operation, restoring the beach to 2015 levels.
Aerial photos on Pages 2-5. I also included a video from my friend Bowman Prendergast taken Sunday on the last page to show how fast they are working. I will follow up with some video and another gallery taken Monday.
