More sand at the Sands
Kudos to Royal Resorts for their constantly updated photo galleries, which are a real treat. The information they provide is head and shoulders above their Hotel Zone neighbours.
This photo was taken yesterday (March 15th) in front of the Royal Sands, looking south.
- View a larger version
It’s noteworthy, I think, because it’s the first image I’ve seen that clearly shows the vast width of the reclaimed beach.
We learned yesterday that up to 58m of sand is being pumped onto the Cancún’s beaches (not 30m), with the expectation that it will shrink naturally to approx. 25m.
The beach looked like this just five days ago.
With just under 8km of beach already recovered, the remaining 4.7km to Punta Cancún should be completed by the end of April.
Thanks to the staff at Royal Resorts
Edited by 
March 21st, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I returned from a 10 day stay at the Royal Sands on Sunday March 19, and had the fortune to experience the beach restoration work first-hand.
Actually, there was no escaping it at our beach-front villa where my wife awoke at 3:00am to scold me for setting the alarm!! It was actually the back-up signal from the front-end loader working under our balcony!!
I took the opportunity to pace-off the width of the beach in front of the Sands, and it is even bigger than the quoted 58 meters.
The actual distance in the photo above – from the wall by the 4 parallel pipes to the waters’ edge by the small "peninsula" of sand directly in front – is 83 full strides – a good 250 feet for me (i.e. 75 meters!!).
We arrived at the Sands during the blustery weather that stopped the beach recovery operation for a few days. During the 3 days where no work occurred, we observed the sea reclaim some 15 meters of beach – so much that it undermined the supply pipe between the Sands and the Ritz.
The contractors were forced to "back-up" some 250 meters and re-start the beach work.
From that point on, Jan de Nul began to create the new beach to a much greater width than previously, which might explain the 75 meter width at the Sands.
Possibly they had underestimated the amount of beach that would be reclaimed by rough seas and were compensating as they moved forward.
From my discussions with a Jan de Nul engineer overseeing the operation, I was informed that they are indeed building a very wide "square" beach with the expectation that the wave action will transform the beach into one with the typical "wedge" or "sloped" shape at the waters’ edge.
During the interim, we will occasionally observe the 3-5 foot "shelf" that was discussed earlier, until a final equilibrium is achieved. Thus, some beach erosion is indeed expected, and the final width will be less than the current width, but by contract set at 25 meters minimum.
By my guess though, the final beach at the Royal Sands will be much wider than that – probably closer to 40 meters.
At this location there is already a great deal of existing sand under the water for some 250 meters out, such that the water depth does not exceed 4 meters for the entire distance, and that should limit the extent of the sand reclaimed from the restored beach in this area.
March 21st, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Peter – absorbing write up; many thanks for coming back and tying up a few loose ends for us.
I think the photos… and your testimony… do indeed suggest that Jan de Nul may have "…underestimated the amount of beach that would be reclaimed by rough seas and [are] compensating as they moved forward."
(The experts must be getting tired of us trying to second guess what’s been happening… but if there was just a little more transparency…)
Thanks a lot. Appreciated.
Steve