From The Beaches Back To The Lagoon

Beach Sand Replenishment Ends. Tidal Channel Sculpting Continues. Dredging Up Next.

Here we are! We are about to finish placing sands from the overdredge pit out onto Cardiff State and Fletcher Cove Beaches. We’ll be finishing that up at the end of this week. Crews will then work to remove all pipes and equipment from the beach and the inlet channel. View the short video about our next phases with Doug Gibson, Executive Director | Principal Scientist, who is guiding the Conservancy team in water quality, habitat, and wildlife monitoring throughout the Reviving Your Wetlands restoration.

As you can see below, work is underway to sculpt the side edges of the main Central Basin channel, making it wider, and a road was built down the middle. This Central Basin sculpting work will continue for several weeks.

Above: One of three excavators is sculpting the sides of the channels and moving sediments into the middle of the channel, making the channels wider. 

In July, the Ross Island Dredge No. 10 that has been in the overdredge pit will work its way out and into the main channel of the Central Basin. It will then start dredging the base of this channel, making it deeper and pulling out the material from the sculpted edges. 

Sculpting and dredging the tidal channels to be deeper and wider is important to tidal flow in our estuary. Think more waters flowing in, more birds flying, fishes making a splash, and nature discovery all around. Click here to view a rendering of the enhanced tidal flow following restoration. 

You are also seeing the creation of temporary dikes (water control features) near the nature center. Click here to see a map noting these dike locations as 2A & 2B. The dikes will allow work crews to manually control the amount of water that is in the channels as work continues.

This is an exciting time as we move these projects from the beaches back into the lagoon. 

Snowy Egret, by Nicollet Overby

Have questions? Please reach out to us:

• Email: [email protected]
• (760) 436-3944 x 713
• Or, leave a comment in the blog post

Have a great weekend! Thank you for following Lagoon Connections.