A highly anticipated stage of the £36 million Clacton and Holland on Sea Coastal Protection Scheme started yesterday, with the first beach recharge to create new sand and shingle beaches. The recharge hails an exciting new stage in the project, as the beaches start to take shape.
The hopper dredger vessel ‘Causeway’ has sailed to the Essex coast and is in the process of pumping sand and shingle material on to the newly created beach areas between the fishtail groynes. The 800m long sinker pipe constructing the new beaches has been sailed over separately and attached to the ship to begin work.
The material for the recharge has been taken from 19km out at sea in a designated dredging site. Once in place, the material will then be profiled by bulldozers.
The Cypriot vessel will make approximately four trips per day and each beach will take approximately one week to construct (weather dependent).
Hundreds of fascinated people have been venturing to the Holland Haven end of the scheme where phase one of the project has been taking place.
Work on building the first of the eight new beaches in phase one will continue until the end of December 2014. The team will then resume in March 2015 in better weather, to complete phase two of the scheme running to Clacton Pier.
The main contractor for the scheme is VBA Joint Venture Limited, with the program being project managed by Mott MacDonald.
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Press Release