Posted on May 8, 2023
Beaches in Encinitas and Solana Beach will soon have more sand thanks to a sand replenishment project that’s been decades in the making.
The cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach are slated this week to sign a project partnership agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin placement of beach dredged sand this fall. It would mark the first phase of a 50-year coastal resiliency project that has been in development since 2000.
“This project to put sand on our beaches in Encinitas has been a long time coming,” Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz said. “Visitors and residents who enjoy our Pacific Ocean shoreline will appreciate the decades of work that was done to make it happen.”
The USACE Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project includes the construction of protective beach berms along two segments in Encinitas and Solana Beach. Sand will be brought in from offshore via a dredge and pumped onto the beach in a slurry, according to the city of Encinitas.
The first segment includes the construction of a 50-foot-wide beach berm extending along 7,800 feet of shoreline in Encinitas, between north of Swami’s Beach to south of Beacon’s Beach. The second segment includes the construction of a 150-foot-wide beach berm extending along a 7,200-foot-stretch of shoreline in Solana Beach. Renourishment will occur about every five years for the first segment and roughly every 10 years for the second segment over a 50-year period of federal participation, according to project plans.
