Offshore sand is being sucked up by dredges at favourite South Australian beaches

A mechanical dredger will start sucking up sand offshore from popular Adelaide beaches. Find out when it will start.

A mechanical dredge will begin sucking up some 90,000 cubic metres of sand from the sea floor near favourite Adelaide boating and swimming spots starting next week.

The State Government’s latest $20.7 million attempt to fix Adelaide’s battered beaches involves running the trial use of a dredge like those currently scouring open the Murray Mouth, alongside its ongoing program trucking in quarry sand.

Sand will be taken from three sites, south of North Haven Marina, from around West Beach Boat Harbor and 500m off West Beach, in a trial allowed to operate every day and night until November.

An Environment and Water Department statement said at North Haven the sand will be loaded onto a barge boat and then shifted to West Beach.

“One dredge will be located at North Haven and two barges will alternate transport of sand to West Beach. A second dredge may be located at either of the West Beach dredge zones,” a department spokesman said.

A dredge and barge will be taking sand offshore from Adelaide's beaches from next week. Picture: Supplied

Officials warned that the trial could lead to temporary restrictions in accessing West Beach, saying this “may be required for safety reasons when trailing methods to deliver the sand”.

This includes either pumping it directly onto the beach or dropping sand near the shore to create an erosion buffer against waves.

The State Government came up with the latest plan after scotching the former Liberal Government’s $38.9m project for a 10km pipe to shift sand that has drifted to Semaphore back to West Beach.

Officials warned that the trial could lead to temporary restrictions in accessing West Beach. Picture: Supplied

It ran a new Adelaide Beach Management Review, considering three main options for managing sand after years of vocal concerns about degraded coastline from residents, beachgoers and Henley Beach Surf Club.

“(The options considered were) dredging, delivery of quarry sand via truck movements and constructing a pipeline between Largs Bay and West Beach,” Environment and Water Department coast manager David Osborn said.

“Dredging has the potential to cause less disruption to the community by reducing the amount of machinery on our beaches.”

The department announcement about the trial start date also said the dredging zones were picked after “scientific testing” for the best sand and considering environmental concerns including loss of important seagrass.

Boat access is not expected to be affected at North Haven Marina and West Beach Boat Ramp during the trial, but there is an exclusion zone around dredging equipment.

West Beach will also have 200,000 cubic metres of quarry sand trucked on site over the next 12 months.