The contractor is Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company out of Chicago. The primary machine used is their dredge parked in the ocean near the St. Augustine Inlet.

The dredge has a cutting head that chews up the sand and vacuums it off the ocean floor. The machine pushes the material -- which is up to 80 percent saltwater -- to a booster station off the coast of Anastasia State Recreation Area, which relays the sand to the eroded beaches.

Altogether, the sand is pushed down the coast with 11,300 horsepower through a 30-inch diameter pipe resting on the ocean floor, according to the contractor.

At the end of the line, the sand shoots out of the pipe before crews with heavy equipment smooth it out on the beach.

Up to 500 feet of the beach can be restored in a single day, according to Russ Tolle, the North Florida area engineer for the corps.

"It depends on how wide you have to fill and how deep you have to fill," Tolle said.

To measure what is placed on the beach as the restoration progresses, the contractor uses an awkward-looking machine called a crab that rises more than 20 feet in the air. The crab is a tripod with wheels that move the machine on the beach and out to sea.

Safety is a concern for the contractor and the Army Corps of Engineers. The pipes are under 20 feet of water and will not pose threats to swimmers or surfers, according to crews at the site.

The project area, however, will be blocked off to keep the public away from the heavy equipment and the sand discharging from the pipe.

The only thing preventing the sand-starved shoreline of St. Augustine Beach and part of Anastasia State Recreation Area from restoration is money.

The entire 2.5-mile stretch will cost nearly $17 million, with $5.5 million available and $550,000 more coming from local sources, said Rick McMillen, project manager for the corps.

The rest will come from Congress and the state.

Local officials are hoping Congress will appropriate $4 million and give the corps the flexibility to move money around from other projects. The difference between the $4 million added to an appropriations bill by the House of Representatives this year and the $2 million added by the Senate will be worked out in the next week or so by a conference committee.

"I, like most people in our community was disappointed when the Senate funded the project at a lower amount, despite the hard work of senators Nelson and Graham," Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., said. "However, I know that the three of us will fight to obtain the funding at the level approved by the house."

The members of the committees were named Sept. 20 and Sept. 26. Jacquelyn Smith, Crenshaw's district director, said the congressman knows who to approach now about the funding.

After the committee decides how much the beach will get in the 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, President George Bush has to sign it. Local officials are worried that the newest priority in Washington, D.C. -- eradicating terrorism -- will discourage lawmakers from funding local projects.

Another funding source would be the state government. Because it's expensive to keep the dredge in the area if it is not being used, McMillen said state park officials have expressed interest in paying for the entire Anastasia State Recreation Area portion of the project, which would be about $4.5 million.

This would still leave it $4 million short.

But it may not be possible for the state to pay more than it has already committed, said state Rep. Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine. Because of a slowing economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Florida is looking at a possible $1.2 billion funding shortfall in tourism-related revenue in its budget.

"It's kind of a difficult time to be going to the well and asking for water," Wiles said.

Also, the federal government acknowledges that the St. Augustine Inlet -- which the governmentd in the 1940s -- is part of the reason for the beach's erosion. Therefore, McMillen said most of the funding should be federal.

But Pacetti, who has been fighting for the project for almost a decade, is worried if the funding doesn't come this year, the project may never get finished.

He wants to see the beach returned to its breadth during his childhood. The beach was wide, he said, when he asked his wife to go on their first date in 1952.

"This, to me, is a very sacred area," he said.

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