By LUKE VOOGT
Barwon Coast began building a sandbag wall at Ocean Grove Main Beach last Tuesday, to protect dunes being battered by coastal tides.
The 50m long and 5m high wall will protect the dune on the east side of the beach’s concrete ramp.
“It’s a temporary solution,” said Barwon Coast general manager Gary McPike.
“There’s been quite a bit of erosion there over the years. If that continues, it will threaten the car park and the toilets.”
Mr McPike said the total cost of the project was about $90,000, which included planning for the project.
“We think it’s a good spend of money,” he said.
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning gave Barwon Coast permission to begin the wall.
“It was on the provision we would plan for a more permanent solution,” he said.
Mr McPike said a permanent solution would most likely be a new ramp, replacing the existing concrete ramp.
“We’ve allocated the funds for the planning of that,” he said.
“In six months we will hopefully have finalised the plans for the new ramp.”
The sandbag wall should be finished sometime this week, according to Mr McPike.
“Provided storms don’t interrupt the work,” he added.
The dune damage is the result of what’s known as a ‘terminal scour’.
Mr McPike said waves don’t hit the beach parallel but rather move sand across the beach.
“When you’ve got a hard structure on a beach, you get a build up of sand on one side and erosion on the other,” he explained.
