Significant. That’s the word Long Beach Township Mayor Joe Mancini used to describe a project to use sand from the bay to fill Beach 3 in Holgate. The project, which began Tuesday at Pershing Avenue, is the result of the dredging of state channels by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

“This sets a precedent,” Mancini said Monday afternoon. “Originally, they were going to pump it to Parker Island. The biggest cost of dredging is moving the sand.