Sand Back-Passing with Land-Based Equipment, A Cost-Effective Approach For Beach Restoration

摘要

One of the most significant challenges facing beachfront coastlines is cost-effective nourishment of eroded beaches where there is a history of continued sand loss. This paper presents a conceptual, innovative sand back-passing beach restoration system that utilizes only land-based equipment that is completely mobile and adaptable to any beach shoreline configuration. The system can retrieve accreted or shoaled sand anywhere within a five-mile shoreline distance of the beach to be restored, and within approximately 400 ft offshore of the mean water line. This system can reduce the cost of beach restoration to approximately S6.50 to $8.50 per cubic yard (cu yd), and can mitigate en- vironmental concerns with other beach restoration methods. The system is best suited where erosion is a continual problem, and where sand needs to be placed annually or periodically. The range of cost effectiveness for this system is limited to between about 30,000 cu yd and 200,000 cu yd annually. Case histories of two sand bypassing transport methods using land-based equipment based on the same general concepts as the sand transport system presented herein are discussed.