Portable Suction-Boosted Sand Delivery System
Builds load-bearing roadways with local sand, fast
Amphibious operations, disaster response, and coastal infrastructure projects often need a stable roadway across the land-water interface — the beach — where soft sand and shifting tides rule out conventional construction. Modern geotextile sediment containment systems can bridge the gap between low and high tides and allow for over-the-shore operations, but filling them depends on dredging equipment and methods that can be costly and labor-intensive. That makes them impractical for quick, efficient deployment in resource-limited and austere beach and intertidal areas.
This suction-boosted sand dredging and delivery system offers a lightweight, portable alternative and is designed to fill ERDC’s Submersible Matting System (SUBMAT) and similar geotextile containment devices. Slurry and water pumps work with a power jet log (a Venturi system that mixes water and sand to increase suction) to move a concentrated sand slurry through a network of hoses and discharge it into the geotextile container’s fill ports. The system assembles by hand without specialty tools, requires only a small crew to operate, and runs on gas or diesel power. Multiple units can be deployed in parallel to fill a single large device faster or fill several devices at once.
The result is rapid, easy, cost-effective filling of geotextile devices using sand collected on site, even in austere conditions. Applications span military amphibious operations, disaster relief, maritime logistics support, and coastal infrastructure projects.
Benefits:
- Lightweight and portable: Small footprint, easy to use and operate
- Low labor: Assembled by hand and operated by a small crew
- Local sourcing: Fills devices with sand collected at the site
- Field-ready: Operates in resource-limited beach and intertidal areas
- Scalable: Multiple units can run in parallel for large missions
- Simple power: Runs on gas or diesel power
Applications:
- Military amphibious operations
- Expeditionary logistics support
- Coastal erosion control
- Temporary beach access
- Disaster relief access
- Flood barrier construction
- Port and harbor logistics
- Emergency roadway access
- Temporary port facilities
Patents
- 18/902,819 (Copy & search patent)