7 Mile Beach Restoration Programme To Start Soon

Friday, March 5, 2004

The Seven Mile Beach sand replacement programme is expected to begin within the next month, according to the Department of the Environment (DoE).

West Indian Marine Ltd was awarded the contract by the DoE and the Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Development and Commerce for the 'Trial Nourishment Programme' that involves the mechanical replacement of sand in eroded areas between Royal Palms and Crescent Point.

A United States engineering firm, Coastal Planning and Engineers, which has experience with such projects, assisted the DoE in drawing up the contract specifications before it was put out to tender. 

The programme, which entails transporting 19,000 tonnes of dredged sand from Turks and Caicos, is costing the government $750,000 and is expected to take an estimated two months to complete.

"A great deal of analysis went into choosing the sand as we wanted it to match Seven Mile colour and grain size as closely as possible," said Tim Austin, Assistant Director, Research and Assessment at the DoE. 

There is likely to be significant disturbance to beach goers while the process is taking place according to Mr Austin. "The whole beach won't be blocked off, but there will be noise issues because of the tractors," he said.

However, as the barge transporting the sand can only take up to five tons at a time, the disruption to Seven Mile Beach will be minimised to two or three day spurts over a two-week period. 

As the trial nourishment programme is quite an unusual project, Mr Austin is hopeful that residents and visitors may be interested in the process. "When a similar project was done in the Florida Keys, it turned into something of a visitor attraction."

In the past five years, significant amounts of Seven Mile Beach have been lost due to high tides, tropical storms and development along the shore.

Described as 'leaky beach,' the area has systematically been losing sand through gaps in the outer reef. There has also been a loss of sand to deep water down the slopes of the outer shelf and large rivers of sand moving over the 'West Wall' to deeper water.

The trial nourishment programme is one of the solutions that was put forward last year by the Government's Beach Erosion Committee. The committee was formed to create policies and strategies for long-term management and preservation of Seven Mile Beach, and all beaches of the Cayman Islands.

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