Work began in October on a £2.5 million ($3.3 million) project to reuse sediment from Harwich Haven Authority's maintenance dredging to recharge the foreshore of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England.
Sand and gravel from routine maintenance of the Harwich Haven approach channels and port berths will be placed at Cobmarsh Island, off West Mersea, and at Old Hall Point, near Tollesbury.
The material would otherwise be disposed of at sea. It is intended to reduce erosion, support flood protection and create nesting habitat for little tern, common tern, ringed plover and oystercatcher.
The beneficial use of dredged sediment (BUDS) in the Blackwater Estuary project is a partnership between the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Harwich Haven Authority, Essex Wildlife Trust and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Funding comes through the Environment Agency's natural flood management programme and the ZSL-led “transforming the Thames” project.
The project's published targets include delivering approximately 85,000 cubic metres of sand and creating about 6.7 hectares of vegetated shingle habitat. The recharge is also intended to protect 25 kilometres of coastal flood defences serving West Mersea, Tollesbury and Salcott-cum-Virley.
The authority said less than one per cent of dredged sediment is currently put to beneficial use nationally.
The scheme extends beach recharge carried out by the Environment Agency in the 1990s and by the Mersea Harbour Protection Trust in 2022. The BUDS collaboration was announced as a collaboration in February 2025.
In July 2026, Harwich Haven Authority and Boskalis Westminster formed the Suffolk Dredging joint venture, which holds the authority's five-year maintenance-dredging contract.