Record amount of sand to fill West Beach as the State Government tries to protect it from winter storms
SANDCARTING has reached record levels on an Adelaide beach – this month alone, it’ll cost $750,000 to help a single stretch of coastline make it through winter. But is it enough?
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SANDCARTING has reached record levels at West Beach as the State Government prepares the vulnerable stretch of coastline for winter.
The Environment Department is trucking 30,000 cubic metres of sand from Semaphore to West Beach this month at a cost of $750,000.
This was on top of more than 30,000 cubic metres of sand that was shifted in May from the River Torrens outlet to the West Beach dunes, as reported by the Westside Weekly.
The total of more than 60,000 cubic metres, equivalent to about 25 Olympic swimming pools, is more sand than has ever been dumped on West Beach in a single year.
A department spokeswoman said the extra sand was being shifted in response to a series of severe storms which lashed West Beach in 2016.
Save West Beach Sand member John Dundon welcomed the move but said the State Government’s Adelaide Living Beaches policy had previously failed West Beach.
“Finally ... West Beach is receiving some of the sand it so desperately needs only as a preventive measure,” he said.
“Much more is needed to balance the account of the massive loss of 271,600 cubic metres of sand from our (part of the beach) in the years 2005 to 2016 by this flawed Adelaide Living Beaches policy.”
About 5000 cubic metres of sand has also been moved from the Torrens Outlet section of West Beach to the dunes near the surf club.
This practice has been done at West Beach for three years in the lead-up to winter to provide additional storm protection to a thin section of the dunes. In April, coastal and environmental geologist Ian Dyson criticised the sand-dumping as a “purely defensive” measure. Mr Dyson could not be reached last week as he was overseas.
Storms lashed the coastline in May last year, severely damaging the rock wall and path near the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club. The club is now considering moving, with its preferred site believed to be Harold and Cynthia Anderson Reserve. Charles Sturt Council is undertaking a $2.5 million project to rebuild the rock wall and in February appointed coastal engineer Kellogg Brown & Root.
The State Government is also in a tender process to employ a contractor to undertake a $70,000 study of West Beach. The study will involve a sea-floor survey to about 500m out to gain a more detailed understanding of wave action and sand movement.