For 12 weeks, contractors worked around-the-clock, using dredges to suck up sand from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay in the Norfolk, Virginia neighborhoods of Willoughby Spit, East Ocean View and Ocean View.
The effort was done to raise and widen the beach to protect infrastructure in this portion of the city.
The $34.5 million project is the largest single storm damage reduction project in the City of Norfolk and included placing 1.2 million cubic yards of sand along the shoreline, as well as widened the beach to 60 feet creating a slope to 5 feet above mean low water.
The area is expected to receive 445,100 cubic yards of fill every nine years, dredged from the Thimble Shoal Auxiliary Channel, over the 50 year lifespan of the project.