HONOLULU (KHON2) — A new beach maintenance project for Waikiki Beach is set to commence on Jan. 25. Ongoing improvements are expected to lead to a temporary partial closure of Kuhio Beach and Diamond Head swim basin, says the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
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The project, which is a follow up to a 2012 initiative that brought in 24,000 cubic yards of sand to the beach, will involve hydraulic dredging and pumping to move up to 20,000 cubic more yards of marine sand from offshore Waikiki onto Waikiki Beach.
DLNR says no construction of any shoreline structures is planned, but they do intend to place clean beach sand along the shore.
“These are critically important beaches and without these type of maintenance actions we expect them to languish which would be devastating to Waikīkī’s beach history, culture and economy,” said Sam Lemmo, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands Administrator.
Mobilization of equipment will begin on January 25, with construction scheduled to start just two weeks later.
Royal Hawaiian beach areas will also have daily intermittent, partial closures to allow heavy equipment movement. Community access will be restricted to dedicated shoreline access points along shore during the dedicated transport windows. Officials say sand maintenance is expected to last three to four months with offshore dredging and pumping of sand occurring weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
DLNR adds that beach sand recycling efforts will need to be repeated every five to 10 years in order to provide wave run-up and erosion mitigation to Waikiki beaches.
The project’s total estimate cost stands at three to four million dollars.
