Beach Building
A soft, sandy beach is one the most desirable water features for public areas and individual homeowners alike.
Building a Beach
Beaches provide safe access to the water, an extended area for recreation such as swimming and jet skiing, are one of the most peaceful settings on the planet and provide excellent erosion control.
Over the years, we have studied conditions and methods to build beach where none exists and to retain beaches which come and go. Beach building is possible if:
- The depth of the water at the shoreline is shallow (less than a few feet)
- The offshore slope is gentle, usually less than 1 vertical to 11 horizontal (this is the natural angle of repose of a beach)
- There is sand in the nearshore area (from the shoreline out to a depth of about 12 feet)
- There is an absence of vertical structures updrift of the property. Shale of limestone bluffs and seawalls will drive the sand offshore, reducing that which is available for beach building
Our firm can analyze your property and make recommendations to assist designing a system to meet your needs.
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After
Building a Beach
If the four conditions listed above are met or can be created, it is possible to build a beach. The process of beach building depends on one fundamental principle – the transport velocity of water. Simply stated, the faster the water moves, the more material and larger particles it can carry. Conversely, the slower that water moves, the more material and smaller particles it will deposit.
Thus, the key element is to slow down the incoming water so that it can deposit the sand being carried in the nearshore area. The most useful material for this task is large rock, because of its absorption characteristics.
Structures designed to build beach (as well as to control erosion) include groins (a rock jetty oriented perpendicular to the shoreline), offshore breakwaters, L’s or T’s (combinations of an offshore breakwater and a groin). Placement locations, spacing, height, and other engineering considerations are site specific. Our firm can analyze your property and make recommendations to assist in designing a system to meet your needs.
Related Projects
Marina Reconstruction
We reconstuct Battery Park Marina in Sandusky. The project consisted of demolition of the existing docks and stone filled cribs, closing the existing entrance with a sheetpile cell, excvation of a new entrance, construction of a breakwater extension and drilling and grouting of 15″ diameter pipe pile into a limestone bottom for new floating docks.
Boathouse Foundations
We were hired by a group of homeowners on Bimini Drive in Sandusky after a fire consumed their boathouses. Our scope of work included 3 phases. 1) Demolition & Removal 2) Surveying, dredging, new sheetpile buckheading and backfilling for 33 homeowners 3) Construction of catwalks and fire walls for boathouses.
Dredging
We were secured by US Army Corps of Engineers to dredge near unexploded Ordnance which peppered the mouth of the Toussaint River resulting from testing and fireproofing artillery in the early 1900s. The project was to determine a dafe and efficient means to dredge such materials. Blast protection shields were built and installed to protect the crew. The material was dredged by clam bucket and placed on specially constructed screens which were affixed to the tops of the dump scows. Then a hish powered fire hose was used to sift the dredge material through the screen, leaving any ordnance atop the screen. Video cameras were used to monitor the screens. An ordnance team from Human Factor Applications, Inc. worked with our crew, handling and disposing of any ordnance found.