A major sand replenishment project aimed at bolstering San Clemente’s beaches near the pier area will resume by the end of April, following a pause in operations since mid-January due to rocks being pumped onto shore instead of sand.
The $14 million, US Army Corps of Engineers-led project more than two decades in the making is expected to add 251,000 cubic yards of sand between T-Street south of the pier and Linda Lane beach to the north, one of several ways the beach town is attempting to keep its eroding beaches intact.
Mason Construction kicked off the project in December, but was met with troubles after the dredge site off Oceanside produced more rocks and shells than expected, instead of fluffy sand. The city sent a letter asking the operator and Army Corps of Engineers to halt the project until a better sand source could be found.
Instead of using the original Oceanside borrow site, the dredger will now pull sand from offshore of Surfside Beach, where another mega US Army Corps of Engineers replenishment project is underway. That $23 million project is expected to add 1.1 million cubic yards of sand to the north end of the county’s coastline.
Following its departure from San Clemente in mid-January, the Mason dredger went further south to San Diego to work on other projects already on its schedule.
Its work is just wrapping up for a replenishment project off Solana Beach and crews will now head to Encinitas for a project before coming back to San Clemente, San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral said Wednesday, March 13, during a regional update meeting addressing chronic sand troubles in south Orange County.
“It’s important we get it done,” he said.
The project will operate 24 hours a day for 30 to 60 days, said Leslea Meyerhoff, San Clemente’s coastal administrator.
Getting the dredger to complete the job while it is still in the area is crucial because bringing it back to Southern California from the Pacific Northwest, where it is based,…
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