East coast Project
East of the 'old' port of Zeebrugge, there were rather narrow beaches. Notwithstanding the protection provided by groynes, erosion of the beaches continued; a narrow channel close to the coast played a role in the erosion process. At high tide the beach disappeared, leaving the seawall exposed to attack by Storms. Taking into account all erosion mechanisms, there was a total annual loss of 800,000 m³ of material.

The Zeebrugge area is highly dynamic; tidal currents up to 2 m/s occur. Consequently, the extension of the harbour would certainly affect the coastal processes east of it. After a comprehensive morphological study, it was decided to improve the east beaches with artificial beach nourishment. In total, 8.4 million m3 of sand were transported to the beaches (see Fig. 128 for a cross-section). Fig. 57 shows a suction hopper dredger in operation near Zeebrugge. The hopper dredgers dumped their load in a special dumping pit. From there, working continuously, a powerful cutter suction dredger and the necessary booster stations pumped sand along the beach.

Some nourishment sand was dredged from the entrance channel to the port of Zeebrugge which was to be deepened as part of the total project. An II km long pipeline was used to reach the most remote dumping areas.

Following completion of the beach nourishment works (Fig. 128), the whole area is surveyed regularly by echo-sounding below low water and by aerial photogrammetric and terrestrial surveys above low water.