Project Description
Redondo Beach Nourishment was a $3 million addition to the Marina del Rey project. The goal was to re-purpose 160,000 cubic yards of beach compatible sand dredged from a Marina del Rey sand trap to build up an eroding section of Redondo Beach.
The sand placement was divided between an offshore sand placement area designed to receive 85,000 cubic yards and Redondo Beach which was to have 75,000 cubic yards placed along a 1300 foot section of beach.
The distance from Marina del Rey and Redondo Beach was a little over 8 miles. This distance from the dredge site to the placement site required two operations to run concurrently.
First was the dredging operation just off Venice Beach performed by Dutra’s’ clam shell dredge the DB-24. The DB-24 was tasked with dredging the 160,000 cubic yards. She utilized three 3000 cy scows to transport the material.
Second was the beach nourishment operation. Dutra’s dredge Paula Lee was assigned to be the pump off platform. She utilized a four point anchor spread to position herself 1000 feet off Redondo Beach. The scows loaded at Marina del Rey would land along side the Paul Lee. Using a series of jet pumps, water was added to the sand in the scow and a slurry mixture that could be pumped to the beach was created. The operator would then lower a 12” Toyo pump into the sand slurry and start pumping sand onto the beach.
The final action required to successfully build beach was the shore side operations. Dutra utilized two bulldozers and a long reach forklift to manage the sand being accrued on the beach and the discharge pipe. Building a series of cells to capture the sand and decant the water, the beach team systematically added sand to the beach from the southern most point, north 1300 feet. All of this was done during active beach season.
Normally beach nourishment projects are scheduled for off season for all the obvious reasons. Budget restraints of the funding agencies dictated that Dutra move in and perform the work while the location was busy with beach enthusiast. Dutra met the increase in safety demands and won the accolades of local safety agencies especially the Redondo Beach lifeguards.
