South Padre Island is launching a new project aimed at re-nourishing its beaches.

Officials say the sand dunes are the island's first line of defense during any storm.

This project will benefit beach goers and people on the island. It will also benefit wildlife, like turtles, who use the beaches to nest.

City officials say this project will help the island's infrastructure.

"Even though we haven't had a direct impact from a hurricane, we see the tide impacts any time a storm enters the gulf. So we have a beach and a dune system out there that helps us protect our infrastructure and communities. That is our major barrier," South Padre Island Shoreline Director Kristina Boburka said.

Over the next two months, work will be taking place to help build up the beaches on the northern part of the island and will be done by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office. The state is funding this multi-million dollar project.

"The work is going to be done via Hopper Dredge, so they have a subline that runs onto the beach right near where the Hilton Garden Inn is. That's where the project will start till about South Beach Access 24," Boburka said.

The sand for the re-nourishment project is coming from the Port of Brownsville.

Dredging will be done at the port in the next month to deepen the ship channel to allow for bigger ships to come in and out of the port.

The heavy machinery should be out and ready to start work in a few weeks to build the beaches back up.