Poole Harbour is being dredged to
provide the sand needed for the scheme. The 750m long pipeline used for
pumping the sand was assembled in Newhaven Harbour in Sussex and towed to
Swanage.
As well as depositing new sand the
project here also involves building new timber groynes to replace the old ones,
and to help reduce longshore drift, the main cause of long-term erosion of the
beach. The old groynes have been in place for 75 years but are now beyond
repair.
New Groynes
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Groyne construction has been
contracted to Dean and Dyball.
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After detailed consideration of a
range of different coast protection measures, timber groynes were selected as
they take up less space on the beach and
there will be little change to the visual appearance of the shoreline.
Timber groynes are also cost effective, historically proven to work here at
Swanage and there is a general preference for them expressed by the public and
landowners through the pre-scheme consultations.
We have 18 timber groynes to
replace, and we intend to complete the work up to Burlington Chine by Easter.
The groynes further north will be completed by the end of May. Achieving
the programme will inevitably depend on the weather and the ground conditions
that we encounter, but the whole team will be working hard to complete the
project on time.
All the old groynes to
the north of the Outfall Jetty will be removed. The two groynes to
the south of the Outfall Jetty do not need to be replaced. About 10%
of the timber will be re-used in the scheme. Some of the rest of the
timber will be taken away and re-milled for use elsewhere. Any
timber that cannot be recycled will be disposed of in a licensed disposal
site.
We are completing the work during
winter to avoid disruption to the tourist season. This means that we will
have to deal with winter weather as well as difficult tidal conditions at
Swanage.
To take best advantage of the lowest tides, we are having to do some of the work
very early in the morning and quite late at night. Work on installing
groynes will be noisy at times. We apologise but this is unavoidable.
