With the bridgehead secure, two bridges were quickly erected by I Corps engineers, with one bridge situated at the river crossing of the northerly road from Choksong.

During the next three decades, Corps engineers surveyed local rivers and rapids, and provided dredging, snagging, rock removal and bank protection.

I Corps engineers were also constructing new bridges across the Orne River and Caen Canal while strengthening the existing bridges prior to the attack.

Efforts to remove the mud were redoubled, although Corps engineers said it would take three to four months to clear all the mud and complete a thorough search for the wreck.

Bernard Moore, the chief state coastal expert who worked with Corps engineers on the project, said he was convinced all the eroded sand was either redistributed along other beaches or was deposited in the surf zone and would wash back on the same spot.

Don Flowers, a Corps hydraulic engineer in Vicksburg, said, "If we had the kind of flood on the Ohio we have on the upper and middle Mississippi, we'd be in big trouble down here."

Corps engineers also had a reputation for approaching their dangerous duties in a much more relaxed fashion than their more "spit-and-polish" contemporaries who served aboard starships and starbases.

Picard gave him a half grin and said, "If a Corps engineer says it can be done, the explanation behind that judgment is usually superfluous."

Mr. Nersesian, the Corps engineer, said the last few years were unusual for the number of winter storms slamming the coast.

Some warnings did in fact make their way to senior officials who could have stopped the project, said Donna Street, a Corps engineer who examined correspondence on the project after it failed.