Sand Bypass System

An ocean current known as littoral drift, or the longshore current, moves sand parallel to the coast, and along most of coastal Delaware it flows northward. This movement carries so much sand that the cape at Cape Henlopen State Park is growing. The completion of stone jetties in 1939 interrupted this natural flow, causing the beach on the south side of the inlet to grow while the beach on the north side became sand-starved. To correct this imbalance, a sand bypass system was constructed in 1990. Its pump-house, located between the jetty and the public bathhouse, powers a process in which a slurry of sand and water is vacuumed up from the south side of the inlet, pumped through a pipe affixed to the bridge, and deposited onto the beach on the north side. The system operates from September to May each year and is designed to pump 100,000 cubic yards of sand, though the amount may vary.

Delaware · United States