Advisian Spit Protection Preliminary Report

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River, Spit and Beach

Long Term Solution (Phase 2)

The long term solution includes a groyne field and some 1 million cubes of sand placed on the 2,7km length of the beach from the river mouth to the southern end of Main beach, with the result of widening the beach by some 40 metres. Ongoing sand nourishment will be required to maintain the beach.

The current status of the Long Term Solution (Phase2) project is as follows:

  • Advisian completed the preliminary design of the long term solution for restoring our river, spit and beach in February 2018, and this is available on our website.
  • CES have completed the EIA application up to approval of the Scoping phase (August 2019). DEDEAT requested that additional modelling be done to assess the impact of the long term solution on the northern side of the river mouth and the beaches north of the river mouth.
  • Advisian are performing the additional modelling necessary to address DEDEAT’s request, together with amendments made to the long term solution as a result of input from various other parties, including the surfing community.
  • The additional modelling is based on new surveys of the bay, beach and estuary.
  • CES are finalizing their documentation after assessing the impacts derived from the additional modelling and will conduct one further round of public participation. They will then submit the final report, the EIR, to DEDEAT early in 2021

Emergency Plan for the Spit

During the past 6 months the Spit has breached four times. The last breach was the most serious. The Municipality and their Consulting Engineers (PRDW) are considering various options to deal with this breach. The SFPO NPC has placed sandbags along the canal walls of several properties in the vicinity of the Pump House.

The Pump House is Municipal property. The other properties are private properties. A large portion of the Spit is now protected by a revetment. It is clear that the implementation of the long term solution needs to begin as soon as possible after DEDEAT approves the EIA application for the long term solution as proposed by Advisian. The emergency repairs to the Spit has been paid by the Municipality. The sandbags have been contributed by the SFPO NPC, and the Riparians have placed and filled the sandbags at our own respective costs.