Dune restoration project in the works at South Padre Island
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A new beach renourishment project is coming to South Padre Island that will help strengthen the dunes to help protect the island from erosion.
A multi-agency effort is helping several areas of Cameron County, and soon excess sand from the Brownsville Ship Channel will be dredged.
"There was a lot of sediment that was deposited into the ship channel, so it made the channel not as deep," Cameron County Director of Natural Resources Augusto Sanchez Gonzalez said.
Sanchez says tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico in June and July brought in excess sand to the Brownsville Ship Channel.
The dredging will help widen the ship channel, and the beaches the Sand Army Corp of Engineers remove will then be used to re-nourish the dunes on the island.
"Once they put the material on it, it dries out it, starts to blow up into the dunes, and it creates a nice natural sea wall for the city and that's storm protection for them," Texas General Land Office Director of Coastal Resources Angela Sunley said.
Sunley says the dune protection is the first line of defense for the city and county against storms.
Andy Bowie Park will be the first to have pipes will be laid down along the beach.
Cameron County says this project will help with their sand dunes, as they lost up to 30-feet during past storm events.
After Andie Bowie Park, the pipes will move to South Padre Island and the sand from the Brownsville Ship Channel will be deposited on city beaches later this month.
The project will cost around $3.5 million, most of it is paid for through state funding
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