3,600 truckloads of sand: How Hillsboro Beach plans to beef up its eroded beach

Lisa J. Huriash, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·4 min read
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If a town’s pride and joy is its beautiful beach, imagine Hillsboro Beach’s heartbreak in having lost about a fifth of its sands.

Now, the town is doing all it can to get the beach back to its splendor: It’s arranging for 3,600 truckloads of sand to replenish what’s vanished.

Even affected was an important sandbar that provides protection to the shore and the homes close by. It’s important to take action, said Mayor Dawn Miller.

“For all of us here, we came to this town because of the beach,” Miller said. “Without the beach we don’t have a Hillsboro Beach. That is most import asset, unifying quality in the town. Everyone in the town loves the beach.”

The severe weather last year contributed to Hillsboro Beach’s sand woes. “It caused erosion, without a doubt,” said Hillsboro Beach Town Manager Mac Serda.

In all, Hillsboro Beach had a whopping 20% reduction of its beach sand throughout 2023, topped off by a winter storm last year that helped wash the precious sand away.

The sand renourishment will involve hourslong trucking of sand from Clewiston.

Of the 3,600 truck loads of sand needed for the beach project, that’ll be accomplished by using 110 to 200 trucks placing sand on the beach each day, Miller said.

“We expect the project to take four to six weeks, provided the weather goes well,” she said.

Picking the right sand

The town must choose a state-vetted sand source, where they can choose the exact replica of sand to match what’s already on the beach, Serda said.

The town’s choice, Garcia Mining Company, is in Hendry County and its sand has “the ability to supply golf courses and construction projects throughout southern Florida,” according to its website.

Previous customers have included Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Boca Raton, according to its website. That contract with Hillsboro Beach is still pending.

The new sand has to be the same size and color of the existing granules, so the ecosystem is not disturbed, Miller said.

Dump trucks will place the sand on the edge of the beach and workers using “earth moving heavy equipment for beaches” will place it in different areas and make sure it is graded properly.

Facing strong weather

The weather in 2023 ended with a bang: A mid-December storm was anticipated to be so fierce that all the South Florida boat parades, including the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade, were canceled during that time period, citing perilous conditions for spectators and boaters.

When it was over, that Dec. 16 storm caused wind gusts of up to 57 mph, anywhere from Juno Beach to Miami Beach, according to Shawn Bhatti, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

There also were some reports of coastal flooding in Broward County, and more than 2 inches of rain hit West Palm Beach, he said.

Covering the costs

Miller said the sand for the renourishment project will be trucked in at an estimated cost of nearly $5 million, most of that tab covered with a federal grant. Engineering and constructing contracts could begin as early as July.

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Because no sand can be placed on the beach during sea turtle season, which ends Oct. 31, the beach renourishment will likely be in late January or February.

The town would prefer to skip the winter season because of heavy winds, which means “sand could get displaced as we’re putting it down,” Serda said. The town has the best results with “more calming seas, and sand is more likely to last longer.”

The town’s options generally for renourishment include inland sand mines that haul their cargo by trucks; pushed through pipes and pumps from the Boca Inlet as a dredge project; or contracting with the Hillsboro Inlet District to obtain sand using a dredge or hydraulic lifts and pipes.

The last beach renourishment in Hillsboro Beach was a $4 million project in January 2023. Prior to last year, there were four beach renourishments from 2011 to 2020.

Serda hopes this doesn’t become an annual event. “We had an unusually significant storm and high-tide season,” he said.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash