Beach Recharge Works
The 70,000m3 of sand required for the beach recharge will be dredged from the access channel at Montrose Port and delivered to the site by sea. This work will be carried out in July and August 2006.
A dredger will start dredging in Montrose at high water. When the dredger hopper is fully loaded, it will sail to Aberdeen, where it will connect to a pipeline for discharging. The pipeline will consist of a shore line on the beach, a submerged line from the beach to the offshore connecting location, and a floating line for connecting to the dredger. The submerged pipeline will be constructed on land behind the Esplanade prior to the main works. After discharging the load from the beach, the dredger will sail back to Montrose. This cycle will be carried out once per tide. Once on the beach, the sand will be moved into position with bulldozers. This machinery will be delivered to the site on lorries. Once placed to the correct profile, the sand will then be surveyed and checked.
This work will be undertaken as a non-stop operation – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is expected that this would last 2-3 weeks, depending on the final quality of the sand required to be delivered, and the sea conditions during the works. Dredging operations rely upon unrestricted working times due to the relatively expensive plant costs.
During the works, a section of beach and a section of lower promenade will be closed to public access. Access will be maintained along the upper promenade (except during road deliveries) and to the parts of the beach unaffected by the works.
