Town Neck Beach Re-Construction Continues

Sand is hydraulically dredged onto Town Neck Beach in Sandwich

SANDWICH – Progress continues on the $1.8 million Town Neck Beach re-construction project in Sandwich, as crews pour sand onto the beach in an attempt to protect it from future erosion and coastal storm damage.

Crews are pumping about 180,000 cubic yards of sand onto the beach. Roughly 90,000 to 100,000 cubic yards have been placed at this point.

The sand, dredged from the Cape Cod Canal by the Army Corps of Engineers. is being used to create dunes to protect the area from continued erosion. Town officials say more damage to Town Neck would start to threaten parts of town as well.

“The volume of erosion we’ve had, there’s parts of town that would be in jeopardy,” Town Manager Bud Dunham said. “This hopefully will give us a bit of a buffer, it’s a sense of relief.”

The project began this month. Dunham said the project could take about three weeks, but there is no update yet on when it might be completed. The project needs to be finished by the end of March because environmental windows that the dredging company needs to work in, but officials don’t expect the deadline to be an issue.

The beach, its parking lot and Wood Avenue Extension are all closed during the work.

Town meeting voters approved an additional $600,000 in Community Preservation Funds towards the project late last year after bids for the work came in higher than expected. Previous funds of $1.2 million were approved in September.

By MATT McCARTHY and ADAM FORZIATI, CapeCod.com NewsCenter