Sand movement from Semaphore to West Beach recommencing
Works to move sand from Semaphore to West Beach will restart tomorrow (Monday 12 October) and be completed by early November.
This is part of ongoing beach replenishment by the State Government. As sand along Adelaide’s coast naturally moves northward via wind and waves, it causes a build-up on northern beaches such as Semaphore and erodes southern and central beaches such as West Beach and Henley Beach South. Adelaide’s beaches have been actively managed for nearly 50 years.
The State Government is delivering the Securing the future of our coastline program to restore and maintain the sand at eroding beaches, including West Beach and Henley Beach South. As part of the initiative, a sand recycling pipeline will be built from Semaphore to West Beach and about 500,000 cubic metres of sand will be delivered from outside of Adelaide’s beach system to make up for sand losses over the years.
In the interim, while the main components are being designed and delivered, sand is being moved from areas where it builds up at Semaphore to replenish critically eroded areas at West Beach.
The four week operation will take place from Monday 12 October 2020 and is expected to be completed by Friday 6 November 2020. The operation will see sand collected between the Semaphore and Largs Bay jetties and moved along the beach to Point Malcolm at Semaphore South where there is an existing beach access path. It will then be moved by road to West Beach.
Works will take place from Monday to Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm with machinery to operate on the beach between 7:00am and 5:00pm. All works are subject to change, depending on the weather and tides.
The community and beach users are asked to please take extra care on the beaches while the works are underway and adhere to all safety signage and flagging in place during operations.
The department is regularly engaging with council and community groups on the Semaphore sand movement works.
Thank you for your patience during these essential works.
For more information visit https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/coasts/managing-adelaides-beaches.
