We drove over to the hotel zone again this morning, in search of the perfect spot to access the beach. We were looking to find a spot near where the work on the beach restoration project is currently. We first tried the public beach access behind the Kukulcan Plaza, but there were some public safety officials that prevented us from entering the beach. So we jumped back into the car and drove over to the Aqua Resort and struck pay-dirt. It was the very beach where the restoration work is currently. The Aqua itself is a beautiful facility where we enjoy going especially to the MB restaurant and other special social events.

The Aqua Hotel is located at km 12.5 on Av. Kukulcan right across from the LaIsla mall complex

At the Aqua……..the perfect way to enjoy a good read……….

Meanwhile just a few yards away on the beach………………

The workers were waiting for the ship to arrive from the Cozumel sand bar with another load of sand. They have exhausted the amounts they can take from the nearby Isla Mujeres sand bar.

This is the business end of the discharge pipe. It is fed from a pump ship offshore with a slurry of sand and water which is deposited onto the area to be restored

Some of the onshore piping that is attached to the offshore tubing. The tubing is suspended from floats on top of the water with one end connected to the ship and the other to the hard pipe on the beach. They can take it apart and add elbows to have the slurry directed onto various parts of the desired area. They build it up to a sand depth of approx. 6 to 8 feet. Then they spread it out and level it with a gradual slope back to the new shore-line.

Unfortunately mother nature’s wave action soon creates a “ledge” that is the beginning of the erosion process.

To prevent erosion the next step is to rebuld the artificial breakwater at the extreme north end of the project to protect those beaches that suffer the most extreme erosion. This is adjacent to the Dreams Cancun resort.

This diagram from the local newspaper illustrates how it will work. You can see the waves coming in right to left and how they dissipate.

Here are the stock piles of concrete blocks that will be dropped offshore to create the underwater artificial reef.

I think that they are doing it “right” this time around. An expensive lesson was learned after the “Wilma” restoration which only lasted about 7-9 months before all that sand was washed out to sea. This is an example of how the sea is damaging the resort buildings nearest the beach at the Aqua. You can see how the Caribbean has undermined the foundation of this building which is an entrance-way down to the beach.

These engineers are using a GPS device to precisely determine contracted specifications for the project in respect to the depth of the sand and how far out it reaches

Posted sign at the Aqua

The red flag means that it is not safe to swim. Each beachfront is closed for about a day or two as they move south. They provide temporary sand bridges over those big pipes until they can move them further down the beach. It’s all an engineering marvel and something many of us will never get to see again. The results hopefully will be long lasting this time around. There is some concern over the possible disruption of fishing and the reef Eco systems and we all hope they did their homework when planning this project and it’s impact on the environment.

Check back often…………….I’ll do my best to keep everyone informed on how the project is progressing.

Please leave me a comment as that is what makes doing this fun for me. Thank you for visiting and have a Happy Holiday season and a great vacation if you’re coming to this area for your vacation.

Sending you all warm Caribbean breezes…………………CancunTom 2009