Having hauled acres of sand back to the beach and culled major debris, Manasquan will begin to sift even the finest particles out as it starts the next step in beach repair today.

Construction equipment to sift sand is expected to arrive today in Manasquan, borough officials announced, starting at the south end and moving north as sand is cleaned.

The sand was pushed around town from the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy, and borough officials had a Feb. 10 deadline to push the sand back in its attempt to recycle it. After raking the beach and awarding the sand sifting contract, Manasquan will spend the next weeks sifting its sand.

The sand sifting should allow the borough to rebuild most of its beach, lost to Hurricane Sandy.

Borough Engineer Charles Rooney said the equipment will sift in one area and creep north.

"They'll mobilize in the south end in a general area. They are going to clean and mound the beach up, push it to one large pile," he said.

The sifter will flattened the mounds of moved sand, and then skim the beach 12 inches deeper than that, and place the clean sand strategically as Manasquan rebuilds its beachfront, Rooney said.

"They'll create a work area, sift it, and work their way north," he said. "They'll probably have three setups."

James R. Ientile, Inc. a Marlboro based excavating company, will do the sand sifting for $237,500. The low bid was awarded Feb. 9.

The borough estimates Hurricane Sandy pushed about 1 million cubic feet of sand into Manasquan streets, driveways, homes. The reclaming process, which pushed a Jan. deadline to Feb. 10, had residents in the first block of town pushing sand curbside while the borough asked western affected properties to haul sand back to the beachfront. Eventually 90 percent of the displaced sand was reclaimed, borough officials said.

The sifting should continue through March into April, borough officials said.