13 March 2009
McCloskey International's S190 Helps Rebuild Local Economy!
When Hurricane Ike hit, it left its mark causing widespread damage across the state of Texas. The full force of the Hurricane was felt by the residents, and businesses of Galveston, an island city on the gulf’s coast. The town relies heavily on the millions of dollars pumped into the local economy by tourists. According to a local study in 2007, tourism provided nearly $15 million in hotel taxes and a third of all sales tax revenue was tied to visitors. After Ike, that income dropped by more than 50%.
An ABC affiliate station in Houston, Texas reported on the effects of the Hurricane. ‘The beaches on which tourism is based have vanished along the seawall, the sand taken out to the gulf by the storm surge’.
The town embarked on a massive project to reclaim and clean the sand that the storm stole, rebuild the beaches, and the island's economy.
Through a temporary pipeline nearly a mile-long, a mountain of sand is destined for the beachfront along the seawall. Eventually, 4,000 cubic yards will be mined just offshore and moved onshore.
Matt Mahoney of the Texas General Land Office said, "It's a huge project. Over two miles of beaches will be restored in front of the Galveston seawall. This operation to dredge all this material out of here, it's a multi-million dollar operation to do this."
Along the shoreline, the sand that did weather the storm is being cleaned and separated from the last remnants of debris. It's a giant sifting operation that is also being conducted by the state land office.
The Land Office has invested in an S190 tracked dry screener to remove the larger debris and produce high quality sand which tourists will want to come and enjoy during the summer. The S190 offers a high quality fine sand, and is able to meet the high tonnage requirements demanded for the project.
"There's a lot of debris in this sand and what you're seeing back here is a screen where sand is being taken off the beach anywhere from 8 to 12 inches in depth," said John Gillen, of the Texas General Land Office. "It's being hauled by the large trucks to the screen. Clean sand is coming out one end and debris goes out the other two sides."
When tourists do return, they'll have a beachfront of clean gulf coast sand to enjoy. The deadline for the project is the end of March when turtle nesting season begins the ABC affiliate station reported.
Life and a lot of work goes on here as sand is being given back to preserve this barrier island called Galveston.
View the full video report, or to see more video’s, photo, and information of the main features of the S190 view the product page by clicking here.
