Barnstable County completes 25th dredge season

On July 1st, the County dredger Sand Shifter finished the last phase of dredging in the outer channel of Saquatucket Harbor, Harwich, marking the end to a successful 25th season.

Since its inception in 1995, the County Dredge Program, led by dredge superintendent Jason Bevis, has dredged over 2,338,676 cubic yards of sand from just about every channel and harbor on Cape Cod. 

The season began in September 2020 on the third and last phase of the Dead Neck/Sampson’s Island project in Barnstable (Cotuit).

The dredge crew completed work in Yarmouth, Falmouth, Bourne, Provincetown, Truro, Dennis, Mashpee, Chatham, and Harwich.

In addition to the Sand Shifter, the County’s second dredger, the Codfish II, was also used and staffed by separate crews to complete half of these projects.

Approximately 150,000 cubic yards were removed from the various channels throughout the Cape, with most of the sand removed used to replenish the nearby beaches and coastal dune habitat.

“This season was a tremendous accomplishment for the crew,” stated Ken Cirillo, Director of the County Dredge program, “They worked ten months in all weather conditions along with a variety of COVID-19 challenges and restrictions to complete these projects.”

The crew includes Superintendent Jason Bevis, Leverman Chris Armstrong & Cory Fleming, Maintenance Engineer Rich Randall, Forman Tanner Dailey, and Deckhands Andrew DiPietro and Zachary Tivey.

Some critical milestones from this season:

• The largest project was the Dead Neck/Sampson’s Island project, with 43,955 cubic yards dredged;
• The smallest project was the Mill Creek Channel, Yarmouth project with 205 cubic yards removing a hazardous mid-channel shoal;
• The longest pipe run was for the Stage Harbor, Chatham project with 2.2 miles of pipe running from the Sand Shifter to a Booster Station and onto the discharge location at Cockle Cove Beach;
• A unique project was the Little Bay, Bourne project, where 15,000 cubic yards of sand were dredged, allowed to dry, and then trucked to Town Neck Beach in Sandwich for dune replenishment/rebuilding.