During the winter and spring of 1994/1995, the City of Galveston restored its eroded beach. The purpose of the project was to provide a recreational beach in support of tourism on Galveston Island. Prior to 1993, a borrow area for the project, the "Big Reef" shoal in the Galveston Harbor ship channel, was identified by the City as the sand source for the project. Nevertheless, based on use of Big Reef, construction bids for the project far exceeded the City budget for beach nourishment. In 1993, Coastal Planning & Engineering, Inc. (CPE), Boca Raton, Florida was employed by the City to engineer the project. Despite the generally unsuitable sediments offshore of Galveston, the engineers of CPE conducted a unique sand search to locate a more economical sand source for the project. Through a process of continual refinement, the sand search was modified on a daily basis to focus in on the best potential offshore sand sources. Three (3) potential borrow areas were identified and the project was rebid. The selected borrow area identified by CPE resulted in a reduction in the bid for project construction by $2,541,000. The beach was restored with sand almost identical to the native sand. The project was completed in time for the 1995 summer tourist season. (DBO)