JENNINGS: AN AMERICAN BEST RESTORED BEACH

Town of Fairfield”™s South Benson Dredging & Beach Nourishment project is the first on-site repurpose of dredged material project of substantial size for a Connecticut municipality.

The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) recently announced that Fairfield”™s Jennings Beach is a winner of the America”™s 2020 Best Restored Beaches Award. The award comes following the more than 27,000 cubic yards of sand that was hydraulically pumped onto the beach this past winter as part of a maintenance dredging project for the adjacent South Benson Marina. The national award highlights the crucial role that beach restoration projects like this play to local recreation, economies, ecosystems and shoreline protection.
“This year”™s Best Restored Beach winners represent a wide variety of beach types that offer unique and varied attributes. I congratulate the winners for their hard work and for the beautiful beaches they have protected and enhanced,” said ASBPA President Tony Pratt. “For more than 50 years, beach restoration has been the preferred method of shore protection in coastal communities. Beach restoration is the process of placing beach-quality sand on dwindling beaches to reverse or offset the effects of erosion.”
As the South Benson Marina entrance channel was shoaling into the point where safe vessel transit to and from the marina was limited during periods of low water, the town of Fairfield contracted RACE Coastal Engineering (RACE) of Stratford to develop and implement a dredging strategy.
With the close proximity of the channel to Jennings Beach, RACE recognized a “win-win” opportunity to reuse the dredged material to restore and nourish the beach while at the same time clearing the channel for safe navigation.
For the work to be permitted, the dredge material needed to meet both chemical analytical testing requirements and be compatible with that of the native beach sand characteristics. Following receipt of acceptable sediment testing results and specific, documented steps to protect habitats and ecosystems, the dredging and beach nourishment project was approved by the state and federal regulatory agencies during the summer of 2019.
Celebrating 20 years, RACE Coastal Engineering provides coastal, structural, geotechnical and regulatory consultation and design to residents, recreational facilities, municipalities and commercial properties throughout the Northeast and beyond.