FENCES NO MATCH FOR NATURE: The weather and tide has destroyed property fences on the beach front at Waihi Beach.
FENCES NO MATCH FOR NATURE: The weather and tide has destroyed property fences on the beach front at Waihi Beach.
Waihi Beach is again showing clear signs of erosion after another severe weather event. The impact can be clearly seen along the exposed Waihi Beach coastline all the way to the southern end - at Bowentown.
There has been another significant loss of sand to the front of dune structures, creating steep sand faces, in some location up to six meters in height.
Western Bay of Plenty Council staff report there have been a number of timber beach access steps completely isolated from the dunes, others have been completely destroyed leaving debris scattered over the shoreline.
KEEPING IT CLEAR: A digger cleared the mouth of the creek near Glen Isla Place, Waihi Beach.
WBOP utilities manager Kelvin Hill said all the creeks entering the coastline have large volumes of debris deposited within the creek including sand build up and large logs.
A severe weather watch for strong winds was issued for the Bay of Plenty coastline as a front moved across the country last Wednesday and Thursday.
The east coast front was followed by blustery northwest winds which swept across the Western Bay of Plenty coastline, reaching at times in excess of 30 knots. While such events are a natural occurrence the 1.7m high tide around 1pm coupled with the strong onshore winds provided extraordinary conditions which saw large waves breaching over the existing beach dunes and running up the creeks.
"These kind of events have occurred before," said Mr Hill, "and cannot be discounted from recurring."
This time there has been significant damage to timber - beach access structures with significant impact on the coastal environment and loss of existing dune structures.
He said ongoing erosion cannot be discounted to the coastal environment.
"These events are natural occurrences. The dune faces along the coastline have lost plant coverage and the dune faces are vertical and high."
Late last week council staff yesterday inspected the affected areas, and focussed on dealing with any health and safety matters that would expose the community to unnecessary risk.
WILD WEATHER: The severe weather and high tides have caused major erosion issues along Waihi Beach.
A number of beach accesses were cordoned off and temporary signs put up to warn people of the situation.
Contractors will be making any necessary repairs to timber access structures to the beach and those which have collapsed or broken will be removed.
Three key beach access points have been modified to ensure future access for the public is maintained.
Thelarge amount of debris, including large timber logs, deposited within the various creek and stream outlets along the coastline will be cleared by contractors during the next day or so.
Temporary repairs should be completed over the next few days to allow public access to the beach and to ensure that storm water can flow from the creeks. Initial assessment undertaken on a number of beach access points will require structures to be completely replaced, others such as the rope ladder designs will need to be relocated back further into the dunes.
Consideration will also be given to what additional dune planting may be required. Staff carried out an inspection of the remaining dune structure towards the northern end of Waihi Beach last Friday.
One property has experienced a significant loss of dune frontage with the existing property fence at risk of collapsing should further erosion occur. The actual property is within close proximity of this fence.
