Sand Injection to Prevent Beach Erosion Is Delayed

REDONDO BEACH — An giant infusion of sand designed to prevent a portion of the beach from disappearing into the sea has been postponed for a week because necessary machinery and materials are unavailable.

A dredge that was supposed to arrive Wednesday to begin pumping 200,000 cubic meters of sand onto the badly eroded stretch of beach between the Topaz groin and the Redondo Beach pier is still occupied at a dredging project in Long Beach. And the sand, which is being brought by tugboat from Marina del Rey after being dredged off the ocean floor in a project to improve the harbor there, won’t arrive all until next week.

The tugboats will dump the sand on the ocean floor, where the dredge will suck it up and pump it through a pipeline into a pile near the lifeguard station closest to the groin.

Tractors working through the night with floodlights will build berms and dikes to hold the sand on the beach and allow the water to drain back into the sea.

The project is part of an attempt to keep the beach from reverting back to the rocky state it was in before 1969. The beach was transformed into a world-famous haven for volleyball players and sun worshipers after the Army Corps of Engineers dumped 1.4 million cubic feet of sand there that year. But it has been slipping into the sea ever since.

The upcoming work will build the beach northward and westward, possibly widening it by as much as 50 feet. Engineers say they hope the $3.5-million project, which is being paid for by the federal government and the county, will preserve the beach.