A hole the size of eight football fields would be gouged from the ocean floor off Fort Lauderdale under a plan to help save the eroding beaches of southern Broward County.

The Army Corps of Engineers said Broward County has applied for a permit to construct what's called a sand bypass, a huge cavity in the ocean floor at the north side of the Port Everglades inlet. Its purpose would be to accumulate sand to fatten the shorelines of John U. Lloyd Beach State Park and the cities to south.

The south Broward beaches have been losing sand since 1928, when President Calvin Coolidge came to town and pressed a button to detonate explosives that would destroy the final barrier between the ocean and the lake that would become Port Everglades. The button malfunctioned, but the barrier was quickly taken down anyway. Since then, the Port Everglades inlet has blocked the natural flow of sand to the south caused by wind and waves.

Beaches that lose sand to the south gain it back from the north. But since the port inlet cut off the supply, the beaches of Dania Beach, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach have been eroding, saved only by costly projects to replenish them with sand from elsewhere.

Under the $20 million bypass plan, sand that would normally just accumulate north of the inlet would end up in the hole. Every three years or so, the sand would be scooped up, taken south and spread on the beach at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park. From there it would naturally flow south to replenish the other beaches.

"It's a great way to have a local dedicated sand source for beaches in the area," said Nicole Sharp, Broward County's beach erosion administrator.

But she said it will not eliminate the need to bring in sand from other places.

"It's a supplement," she said. "We don't want people to get the wrong impression."

Throughout South Florida, beaches have been going through various stages of replenishment. The county currently is awaiting a federal permit to begin work on a plan to widen more than five miles of eroded beach from northern Fort Lauderdale to southern Pompano Beach.

Cities south of the inlet strongly support the sand bypass. Hollywood, which has already seen much of the sand from a major renourishment project wash away, would see a more stable beach and less need to spend money obtaining sand.

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Huge underwater hole planned to get beach sand