I'll reiterate.
The dredge project has traditionally been a joint operation between the city and the Army Corp of Engineers (I could be wrong on the dept, but it's the military on behalf of the shared use of the harbor mouth. One end goes to to the rec harbor while the other path leads to Camp Pendleton).
The hiring process It is continually delayed through mismanagement on both sides leading to low bids by carnie contractors. This was inevitable. Just as it is inevitable that they often dredge too early or too late, making the investment completely useless.
In a really tonedeaf example of bad timing, one of the Oceanside City Council members is running for re-election, running largely on a sand replenishment platform.
24 hours after the sand replenishment process killed this woman, his lit dropped celebrating how "The first step to bringing sand back is complete"! Cringe.