Coastal protection work starting soon

Work on the extension of a rock wall at Buffalo Beach and a geotextile seawall at Brophy’s Beach is planned for late April/May.

The consent to build a rock wall extension at Buffalo Beach has come through and we’re now tendering for the work.

Meanwhile the consent for the geotextile wall at Brophy’s Beach, should be through by the end of February.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the physical work start,” says Mercury Bay Community Board Chair Paul Kelly. “Brophy’s Beach has been a really popular spot this summer, particularly with a floating pontoon being put in.”

Council staff, In their own time, with the help of locals local builders Steve Tull, Wayne Kerney and Ethan Dagger and advice from Mercury Bay Harbour Master, built a floating pontoon which has been a real hit for families.

Meanwhile the new wall being built at Brophy’s Beach will replace the existing rock wall. Physical work entails excavating a footing and then laying geotextile bags on top of each other to form a wall.

Sand will then be pushed over the bags and completed with some minor dune planting work.

Construction will take about six weeks and while work is underway some sections of Brophy’s Beach reserve will be temporarily closed. Meanwhile the rockwall extension at Buffalo Beach should take up to six weeks to complete too.

Sand push up work.

You might see a digger on the beach occasionally pushing sand up onto the beach. Why do we do this and is it worth it?

Sand push ups/sand scraping is when we move sand up past the high tide mark to areas more susceptible to coastal erosion.

At different times of the year we find a scarp (vertical drop) occurs between the beach and the land so this work is done as and when required. Reasons for the work include:

Health and safety issues: We want to avoid people falling or tripping off a vertical drop or scarp.
Often there can be a long period of time before the beach will naturally regenerate, so this work is an interim measure to slow down the rate of erosion of existing land.

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