350,000 cubic metres of sand have been pumped into Bournemouth’s beaches (Image: Getty)
Bournemouth wows the crowds with its miles of golden sandy beaches, scenic stretches of coastline and vibrant town centre for decades. Often hailed as the UK’s ‘best’ beach Bournemouth boasts a seven-mile stretch of award-winning beaches and is renowned for its clean, golden sands and excellent facilities.
To maintain the beach’s size and resilience against erosion 350,000 cubic metres of sand were pumped into eight sections of the town’s beaches in the last few years only. The £7.5m project saw huge machinery operating on the beaches, with members of the public urged to steer clear and to keep dogs on leads. Enormous pipes stretched along to install sand on the beaches from mid-December 2020 to March 2021.
The mammoth project cost £7.5m (Image: Getty)
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The beach locations requiring a top-up included Solent Path to St Catherine’s Path, Gordon’s zig-zag to Fisherman’s Walk, Boscombe Pier, East Cliff, West Cliff to Middle Chine and either side of Shore Road in Poole.
The project involved a 0.8-mile-long underwater pipe stretching out to sea to connect with the dredger and pump material ashore.
Up to 1.2 miles of shoreline pipe was then used to distribute the sand and beach material.
This is not the first time the beach has required a top-up; in fact, Bournemouth beach is replenished at intervals of around 15 years.
In the 30 years between 1970-2000 almost 2m cubic metres of sand was used pumped into the beaches at Bournemouth and Poole.
2m cubic metres of sand topped up the beaches between 1970 and 2000 (Image: Getty)
During the 20th century, the construction of seawalls and promenades put a stop to the natural supply of beach material from cliff erosion. It is a necessity to replace beach material lost to longshore transport to the east, driven by wind and waves.
The ongoing need for beach replenishment was identified in the Poole and Christchurch Bays Shoreline Management Plan in 1999.
In 2004 a report by Halcrow suggested that a further 3m cubic metres of sand will be required over the next 50 years in order to maintain protective beach levels and widths.
