Front Page   What's New Page  

BEACH RENOURISHMENT AT HEACHAM
Stella of Heacham On Line would like to thank Malcolm for sending in the photos and feature.

On the lighter

side of things

our main photo

shows that

nothing stops

a man going

fishing.

Beyond our

fisherman you

can see the

barges in

position ready

to unload the

sand & shingle.

Above shows the sand and shingle being unloaded from the barges into the sea.
Above shows the sand & shingle that was unloaded from the barges, below we see the loading and unloading and levelling.

BEACH RENOURISHMENT AT HEACHAM AND SNETTISHAM

The Environment agency will commence renourishment of the beach at Heacham next month (from 18 July). Work will continue until the end of November.
The work is the final part of a 5-year package of sea defence improvements in the area that started in 2001 and has to date included hard defence schemes at Snettisham beach (south of the Scalp), Heacham Dam, Heacham beach (north of Jubilee Ramp) and Hunstanton South beach. The improvements are part of a 50-year plan to manage the sea defences between Hunstanton and Snettisham.

Nourishment involves dredging material from the seabed and placing it on the beach. This was last carried out in 1990/91.
The current proposal is restricted to two locations and aims to provide a higher beach with a flatter slope. This will increase  the level of flood protection and should also help to reduce the winter cliffing, which is a feature of the shingle ridge sections  of the beach.
The two locations involved are:
-   from Jubilee Ramp in a southerly direction for a distance of 1700 metres (to the edge of the Coastal Park) and
-   for a distance of 1300 metres roughly centred on the Snettisham car park area.
About 400,000 tonnes of sand and shingle will be dredged from a licensed aggregate site in the North Sea (off Skegness) and  taken into the Wash by dredger. There the material will be transferred onto barges and brought ashore to Heacham South Beach. Once ashore dumpers will transport the material to its final location where it will be profiled by bulldozers.
Works are entirely subject to tidal conditions and barging will only be possible on spring tides (probably 6 days out of 14).
Marine conditions will also play a part so it is important to make as much progress as possible during the better weather. This means starting the works in the summer. However because of the importance of bird nesting on the beaches it is not possible to start until the nesting season has more or less finished - hence the July planned start.
This also coincides with the main holiday season so the contract works will be phased in an attempt to reduce disturbance to a minimum. To this end prior to the school holidays every effort will he made to make up the beach in the Jubilee Ramp area. At the start of the holidays operations will relocate to concentrate on the beach south of the Heacham River Outfall. At the end of the holidays the beach north of the outfall will be completed The current plan will also involve transferring material to Snettisham beach during the same period commencing north of the car park and gradually working south. By adopting this approach it is hoped to minimise the impacts on holidaymakers.
Beach Nourishment (sometimes referred to as beach recharge or replenishment) should not be confused with the annual beach recycling carried out by the Agency whereby sand and shingle, which naturally drifts south toward the Snettisham Scalp is returned to the beaches to the north.  Recycling is purely a land-based operation and does not involve any marine activity; Site Offices for the Contract duration will be located by the Heacham South Beach car park. Representatives of the contract site team will be available to discuss working issues with organisations and members of the public. Information boards with programme and contact details will be erected in due course at the site offices and other key locations
.

Above is a copy of the article that appeared in the July edition of the Heacham Newsletter supplied by Steve Peck of the Environment Agency.

Top of Page