Beach Nourishment of the Eastoke frontage 2002
- Wed 15th May 2002
The shingle beach along the southern frontage of the Eastoke peninsula is the first line of defence against the threat of coastal erosion and flooding.
The Council is the Coast Protection Authority that enables the use of permissive powers to manage these risks when it is considered in the Public interest. The Council developed and approved a Beach Management Strategy Plan that identified the most effective approach to managing this frontage; this decision was made after considering all economic, environmental and technical criteria. The Beach Nourishment works are one element of this preferred approach to managing this frontage and will restore beach material that is moved out of the area by natural coastal processes.Council Officers have been monitoring the coastal processes around the Eastoke area and have determined that wave and tidal action moves shingle along the beach and into the entrance to Chichester Harbour. This material is then moved by strong ebb tidal currents at the entrance to the Harbour and comes to rest approximately a kilometre offshore. This deposition of material becomes a serious hazard to mariners and the Chichester Harbour Conservancy is required to remove the material in the interest of safety. The Council working in partnership with the Chichester Harbour Conservancy can ensure that by returning this material back to the Eastoke frontage that it is not removed from the local sediment transport system.
The beach nourishment works will restore the beach levels to improve the standard of protection against storm events. The work will involve “rainbowing” 50,000 cubic metres of shingle directly between the groynes along the Eastoke frontage. The Council have appointed Westminster Dredging Ltd to undertake the works which are planned to start on the 15th of May and be complete by the end of the month. The Contractor is planning to use the dredging vessel “Sospan” which was previously used for similar works at Eastoke in 1997. Sospan is a trailing suction hopper dredger, which is almost 60 metres long and capable of holding 700 cubic metres of sand and gravel. The Sospan has a shallow draft and a jet pump ashore facility, which will enable the vessel to come very close inshore and “rainbow” the material directly into its preferred location.
The works are costing in excess of £100,000 for which the Council have successfully secured funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Extensive post project monitoring of both Hayling Island and the Witterings has been planned to ensure that any effects of the operation are identified and that suitable mitigation measures are implemented.
Courtesy of HBC
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