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Beach replenishment is finally complete in Ocean City, Maryland, just in time for the summer season, and after the rough winter stalled the project for a number of months.

Bulldozers, offshore dredges and massive pipes have been a constant on the Ocean City beach since February, as several cubic tons of sand from the ocean floor have been churned up, pumped ashore and redistributed on land to beef up the resort’s coastline.

The federal beach replenishment program has been doing this every four years since 1994, and after major storms inflict massive erosion on the resort’s 10 miles of pristine beach.

This winter’s project endured months of stop and go work as the harsh weather conditions slowed progress to a crawl, but once the weather cleared, work crews got back on track and finished earlier this week, with a few weeks to spare before the summer season.

The program is funded by a partnership between Worcester County, the state of Maryland, the town of Ocean City and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, which picks up 50 percent of the bill.

The program is credited with preventing an estimated $600 million in storm related damages to coastal properties since its inception.

Source: wamu.org, May 20, 2014