State will replenish sand at Waikiki Beach

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The state is looking for a private contractor to pump up to 10,000 cubic yards of sand from an underwater site about 2,000 feet offshore to replenish the eroding beach in Waikiki.

It will be the largest replenishment effort in more than three decades, and it is intended to offset erosion that has taken away about a foot of beach a year since 1985, according to the state.

"This is the beginning of a major effort to make improvements to one of the world's most famous beaches," said Peter Young, chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. "Waikiki is one of the gems of Hawai'i, and we are looking forward to a more beautiful and more stable beach in the near future."

Since 1929, about 616,500 cubic yards of sand have been used to enlarge and replenish Waikiki Beach between Fort DeRussy and Kuhio Beach, but every year more erodes away. Little sand has been added since the 1970s, according to the DLNR.

The objectives of the project are to improve the size of the beach between the North Kuhio Beach groin and the Kapahulu storm drain and demonstrate state-of-the-art offshore sand collecting and pumping technologies for future beach restoration efforts.

The $500,000 to $700,000 project is expected to begin in March and take about 90 days to complete, providing a much-needed source of beach-quality sand to the tourist area.

Chip Fletcher, a professor of coastal geology at the University of Hawai'i, said the work is really a recycling project because the sand now settled offshore was brought in years ago to fill out the beach.

Fletcher said Waikiki was never a naturally large beach area but was artificially widened and lengthened to support the growing tourist industry. The sand was pulled out to sea by currents and for years has been filling in reefs, creating shallower water and changing the way the surf breaks.

To maintain the larger beach area, enlarged from about a half-mile in the 1920s to about 1 1/2 miles now, pumping it up is a perfect solution, Fletcher said.

Willie Grace, a professional surfer and Waikiki beachboy, has been working the beach for decades.

"I've seen it erode away," Grace said. "Summer and winter, the beach changes. Right now we can't even set up (an) umbrella past our stand. It you try to dig down, there is only about an inch of sand with concrete below."

Sam Lemmo, administrator of the DLNR's Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, said the pumping technology was used in 2000 to bring up about 1,300 cubic yards of sand onto Kuhio Beach, but the contractor had some technical problems.

The state has looked into those problems and refined the process in its request for proposals now available to bidding contractors.

A recent UH survey identified several potential sand sources near Waikiki that are viable for beach nourishment, Lemmo said.

The data obtained from this pumping project will be used to establish appropriate environmental and design parameters, cost estimates, pumping system designs and production rates for future beach nourishment efforts.

The DLNR's supplemental budget request to the Legislature for fiscal year 2005 includes a request for $2.4 million for Kuhio Beach improvements that will complement this initial project and improve water quality, stabilize the beach and improve public safety.

In Waikiki, concrete seawalls and rock groins were built over the years to reduce current flow and protect sand. The next project will include the design, demolition and reconstruction of the existing coastal structures and placement of additional sand, Lemmo said.

"In doing research on the history of Waikiki Beach, I'm finding a lot of the things done were kind of experimental in nature," Lemmo said. "Back in those days, they would just try something to see if it worked and if it didn't, rip it out and try something else."

Today's designers have a better understanding of the ocean, sand and currents and will be able to build something that is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but functions better than what is there now, he said.

Kristy Smith, here on vacation from Oklahoma, said Waikiki could use a little more sand.

"There is not very much," Smith said. "If people want to suntan or bring their family down, there is not very much room without getting wet."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.

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