Elgin AFB

The Eglin Air Force Base includes a large radar installation on Santa Rosa Island, a coastal barrier Island on the Florida panhandle, just west of Destin, Florida. The radar installations were badly damaged due to flooding and over wash of the Island during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Facility reconstruction and armored shore protection projects were finalized in 2010 when the Dredging Division was contracted to create two large beaches in front of two of the radar facilities. The project required the recreation of dunes and a large berm feature to protect the newly armored structures. Sand was excavated from a borrow site located 4 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico with the hopper dredge RN Weeks, then hauled over ten (10) miles before being pumped ashore. A total of 966,000 cubic yards of sand was excavated, transported, and placed on the Air Force Base. Special efforts were undertaken to protect endangered sea turtles in the borrow site.