The difference is stunning.

A whole section of Dover seafront has been transformed in just over a month with the infilling of Granville Dock to make space for new EU border checks.

KenOnline’s pictures show the dramatic change now that the placing of the aggregate is complete.

The before picture shows how the Western Docks looked in 2022.

But little had changed in the last couple of years – until now.

The reclamation of land is to create space for vehicles to have checks under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System EES when the new border rules eventually come into force.

The shipping and aviation news organisation Dover Strait Shipping has also been following the progress on the work with regular photographic updates on its Facebook page.

Nigel Scutt, from the group, commented: “It’s funny when you take things for granted and then suddenly realise that they are no longer there.”

The sand-filling work began on September 9 and finishes next Monday.

About 700,000 cubic metres of sand was pumped in from a dredger. The aggregate came from licensed extraction sites off the Thames Estuary and also Folkestone.

Granville Dock will now be compacted and topped with stone ready for next summer.

The Port of Dover authority ordered this transformation as it is feared time taken up with the new EES checks could cause 14-hour delays.

The port has also been helped by a £45 million government Levelling Up grant awarded last year to ease gridlock.

Another £3.5 million was announced by the Department for Transport last month.

The EES has been drawn up to register entry and exit data of non-EU nationals, including Britons, going into the Schengen area.

This is the group of countries on mainland Europe where its citizens can travel into member states without border controls, as if travelling between England and Wales.

The method is that manual passport stamps at Kent ports are to be replaced by biometric facial imaging and fingerprinting, which has to be done in the presence of an officer.

The EES checks were meant to begin this month but were postponed until November 10.

Now the start has been put back again, until the first half of next year.

This is because Germany, France and the Netherlands said their systems were not ready.

Worried Kent transport bosses had also warned introducing the new checks at Dover was a “nightmare waiting to happen”.

There have been alarming predictions about future chaos at the border which could repeat the scenes of July 2022 when travellers were left stranded in 15-hour queues.

Some predict the introduction of EES could mean such scenes are replicated more frequently.

Cross-Channel traffic in Dover can already clog up the town when there is peak holiday demand, a lack of border control staff or strikes in France.

Port bosses are making space at Granville Dock for the checks to keep vehicles being checked off the roads which lead to the Eastern Docks.

Land reclamation is a long-practised form of engineering and produced the Samphire Hoe country park in Dover.

This was opened in 1997 after being created from spoil from the building of the Channel Tunnel.