Fairhope moved ahead in June 2014 with plans to repair a heavily eroded section of its bayfront beach, preparing to truck more than 5,000 tons of sand to the shoreline between the Pier Street boat ramp and the Pecan Avenue pier.
In mid-April, the city had hired civil engineer Scott Douglass of Fairhope-based South Coast Engineers LLC to investigate the extensive erosion near Magnolia Beach Park and recommend solutions.
The plan
Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler said it had been determined that sand would need to be trucked to the beach, with renourishment likely necessary every two to three years. "The plan that we have includes buying sand and delivering sand between Pier Street boat ramp and the Pecan Avenue pier," Fidler told the City Council on Monday night. "And we’re looking at over 200 loads of sand."
Each load, she said, would carry roughly 20 cubic yards. At 200 to 250 trips, that amounted to as much as 4,000 to 5,000 cubic yards, or about 5,400 tons of sand. The city planned to receive bids that Friday on the cost of purchasing and hauling the material, with hopes of bringing a low bid to the council for approval at its June 23 meeting.
Racing the calendar
Time was a factor. "The mayor would like to have it done before the Fourth of July," Fidler said. "So if we do that, we really have to move." Mayor Tim Kant said he had been told the project could cost about $100,000 but was one that had to be done.
Residents had been raising safety concerns for months. "We knew we had to do something," Kant said. "It got to where it’s not safe. A child might fall off the top of the hill." The beach had last been replenished nearly a decade earlier, according to Fidler.
Building dunes
Once the work was approved, the contractor would dump sand behind the Pier Street boat launch restrooms, and city crews would fill in the eroded areas to create a terraced, dune-like landscape. "There will be two different terraces," Fidler said, explaining that wind blowing sand off the first terrace would let it settle on the second. "That’s how you build dunes, basically." The grassy area between the beach and the Eastern Shore Trail sidewalk would not be touched.
Longer-term ideas
Officials also looked beyond the immediate fix. Long-term measures to slow erosion could include near-shore oyster reefs or other wave-reducing structures. Kant said he would also like to address the drainage pipes that jut out along the beach. "I want to put the beach back along there and get rid of a lot of those ugly pipes," he said. "It’s really a pretty beach but we really don’t do a lot with it."