The most recent sand deliveries to Baxter Road are not for beach nourishment at the geotubes, but for blanketing the face of Sankaty Bluff in an attempt to provide a base for beach grass and other plantings. The sand has been deposited on the bluff edge in a number of places and pushed over the side by machines much smaller than the front end loaders normally seen during replenishment operations. The small cottage that is a remnant of the house called “Bluff Edge” is wrapped in plastic to protect its contents from blowing sand, a problem faced by its occupant during the initial geotube installation. On the same lot, a row of privet has been taken up to allow machine access to the edge.
The sand covering hides much of the devastation the bank has endured due to runoff erosion in the last 14 months. Whether or not it will prevent its continuance is debatable.
You can see more and larger photos on Nantucket Erosion at http://www.nantucketerosion.com
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The sand conveyor in the driveway of the house remnant “Bluff Edge”.
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Heavy machinery on the top of the bank.
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Sand piles deposited at the bluff’s edge to be pushed over the side by a small machine.
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A path to the edge made by a skid steer (small front end loader) while dumping sand over the edge.
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The deep gulley on the north side of “Swept Away” has been filled with pit sand. It is evidently hoped that this loose sand will fare better than the native material, deposited and compacted thousands of years ago, in resisting the runoff from the top of the bank and the flow of the adjacent wetland through the bluff face.
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The challenge facing the SBPF is to keep these three placeholder structures from going over the edge. Without them there is no legal justification for the geotubes below.
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The blanket of pit sand that will presumably cover all of the nearly 900′ of bank above the geotubes.
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Sankaty Bluff erodes in a number of different ways. Today, fine, dry sand poured uninterrupted down the face in many places. While it doesn’t look like much…
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…a longer view shows that it adds up to an impressive accumulation along the toe of the bluff.
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