The following is the second weekly update for the Cape Henry Beach truck haul replenishment contract as provided by Phill Roehrs, Water Resources Engineer with Public Works Engineering: 

 “As previously reported, hauling began on February 10, 2010.  As of the close of business on Monday, February 22, 22,000 cubic yards of sand had been hauled to the beach and spread between Ships Watch Court and Oak Street.  The contractor is now placing sand east of Oak Street.

 We have revised our estimate of the quantity of sand available to be approximately 35,000 cubic yards – the contractor has been able to remove quality sand down to elevation 2 feet, NAVD, within the Maple Street Dredged Material Management Area, almost two feet deeper than we had originally anticipated.  Again, our intention is to remove all available sand from the Maple Street site, we are actively looking for every opportunity to maximize the volume.  We are also closely monitoring the material quality with a full-time inspector at the borrow site, no objectionable loads have left the site.   

 We continue to field-adjust the cross section to assure that the fill operation will extend all the way to First Landing State Park with the largest possible beach berm dimension.  The finished beach is a substantial and notable improvement.  The sand placed on the beach is of such a quality that it is difficult to distinguish the new material from the existing beach sand – from color to grain size to shell content.  We have not discovered any pockets of deleterious material, but if found on final inspection we will promptly schedule a visit by Beach Operations to sift and groom any objectionable areas.

 Work hours continue as 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

 With roughly 13,000 cubic yards to go, we anticipate the hauling will be complete by the end of the first week of March.  We continue to monitor the condition of Oak Street, and will schedule repairs if necessary immediately after hauling and the Oak Street beach access restoration are complete.

 No concerns or objections from citizens were received during this week, and there have been no traffic incidents.”