Sand sausages late but will be stronger

Work to begin repairing sand sausages at Ocean Beach has again been delayed, this time because of poor weather.

It was hoped the work would begin yesterday but rough weather at sea prevented the dropping of an anchor necessary to setting up an intake pipe and pump needed to fill the geobags, Dunedin City Council asset and commercial manager Tom Dyer said.

Workers were now aiming to begin filling the bags today. The delay was not expected to affect the intended completion date in July, he said.

The timing of high tides this week would prevent contractors completing much work on the sand sausages but productivity should increase from next week.

The geotextile material for the bags was all on site now and work could begin when the anchor was dropped.

The material for the sand sausages was thicker than that of the bags they were replacing and should last longer.

The project to replace the previous sand sausages - which were exposed and damaged by last June's storms - has been plagued by delays.

The council had originally said the work would be completed by mid-June ahead of the worst of the winter storms; now it could be as late as the end of July.

The latest delay comes as St Clair resident Bill Brown, who has been petitioning the council to carry out remedial work on the beach since last September, criticised the position of coastal erosion expert Dr Wayne Stephenson.

Dr Stephenson, a University of Otago geography senior lecturer, told the Otago Daily Times last week he remained confident Ocean Beach was undergoing a natural pattern of erosion and accretion despite the "dramatic'' appearance of the dunes after last year's storms.

He advocated leaving the beach to fluctuate and build up naturally, which could take years to recover from last year's ``storm bite''.

Mr Brown said the council and area's residents did not have "the luxury to wait and see if Dr Stephenson's theory is right''.

"The most heavily eroded section of St Clair Beach is also the narrowest point of Ocean Beach Domain and is populated by 26 residential properties and closest to Victoria Rd,'' he said.

"At long last and hopefully not too late, work is under way to reinstate the sand sausage wall at St Clair, which is step one towards a long-term solution to this problem. Let's not lose the chance this time to protect the coastal dune system, the main line of defence against potential catastrophic flooding.''

Dr Stephenson said the sand sausages were not protecting the coastal dune system.

"He doesn't want to protect the dunes,'' he said.

"He wants to protect his property.

"The best thing to do is to allow the dunes to erode and naturally recover.''

He was not convinced the sand sausages were protecting the coast and their effects during last year's storms were almost impossible to assess.

"It's pretty hard to know what they did or didn't do,'' he said.

"What they do provide is a sense of security.''

However, the most cost-effective solution in the long term might be to abandon the properties in jeopardy at present to allow the natural fluctuation of the coast "rather than maintain a costly static structure''.

He remained convinced the coast was in a natural state of flux and the council's budget might be better invested in investigating the sediment budget of the beach and the effects of human interference.

The council has committed to spending $100,000 in the coming financial year to investigate a long-term solution for the issues at Ocean Beach.

timothy.brown@odt.co.nz

 

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