Active beach management
provides protection to the coast
Adelaide’s Living Beaches Strategy
Glenelg South – 1977
Without active management, many of the
sandy beaches would erode down to rock
and clay within ten years. Seawalls and
development would be at risk of collapse.
The major objective of the Adelaide’s Living
Beaches Strategy* is to protect coastal
properties and infrastructure and maintain the
amenity of Adelaide’s beaches by collecting
sand from locations on the metropolitan coast
where it accumulates, and recycling it to areas
along the central and southern metropolitan
coast from where it has eroded.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Changes to
Sand Management
on Adelaide’s Beaches
The range of actions to support the Adelaide’s
Living Beaches Strategy, includes:
• t rucking and pumping sand
(through a pipeline system) from north
to south and discharging it at beaches
affected by erosion;
•a
dding sand to the beaches from
external sources;
•b
uilding coastal structures such as seawalls,
groynes and offshore breakwaters in critical
locations; and
The vulnerability of Adelaide’s sandy beaches
to fluctuations in sand supply has been
demonstrated by rock and clay at some
beaches being exposed after severe storms.
• integrating sand bypassing at harbours
with beach management.
The Strategy was endorsed by government
in 2005.
Carting sand using around 11,000 truck-loads
a year on beaches and roads is a public safety
risk, reduces the amenity of beaches and
adversely impacts on foreshore roads.
Glenelg – 2007
The pipeline will halve the sand carting traffic.
For further information contact
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Tel: 8124 4877
Web: www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts
Email: metrocoastprotection@sa.gov.au
*Adelaide’s Living Beaches: A Strategy 2005–2025
ISBN: 1921018 984 | FIS 91328
Government
of South Australia
www.environment.sa.gov.au
Sand management
is changing
Sand discharge trial 2007
The active management of the
sand supply on Adelaide’s beaches
is changing from mainly trucking to
a combination of trucking and sand
transfer pipelines.
Background
Adelaide’s beaches are at an angle to the
prevailing winds and waves of the Gulf St
Vincent. As a result, sand washes north from
the southern beaches, causing erosion of the
beach and the sand dunes, and accumulates
on the northern beaches.
This natural sand movement is an on-going
process. The consequent threat to beaches,
coastal development and infrastructure has
necessitated active management of the
beaches since the early 1970s.
Pipeline locations
The sand transfer pipeline involves constructing
9km of pipelines with pumping stations and
discharge sites, to pump and discharge sand
along sections of the coast with the most used
beaches. Sand will be pumped from Glenelg
and discharged at a number of locations en
route to Kingston Park and from the Torrens
Outlet and discharged at a number of
locations along the dunes at West Beach.
Trucks will continue to cart sand along the
beach in the sections of the coast from
Semaphore to Tennyson, and West Beach to
Glenelg North.
Benefits
The construction of the pipeline will benefit
beach goers as pumping sand is less disruptive
than carting sand as fewer trucks are needed.
The pumping infrastructure will be quiet and
concealed underground.
Sand will be distributed more evenly in the
areas that erode, because of the multiple
discharge points along the pipeline. This
project will remove most truck traffic from
coastal roads and halve the amount of sand
carting by truck.
Cost
The Sand Transfer Infrastructure Project will cost
$23 million to build, and maintaining the
protection and amenity of Adelaide’s beaches
will cost $5.75 million a year.