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UK First for Sand Dune Protection
01 Oct 2007
An innovative approach to strengthening sand dunes has been implemented at Blyth on England’s north east coast, which involves a number of 2.5 tonne sandbags having been buried into the dunes. The work along a 60m stretch of beach is strengthening dunes in an attempt to ensure the continued protection they offer, arresting erosion due to wave action at the base of the dunes.
A Royal Haskoning team is using this relatively small project as a testbed for the first application of this technique for dune strengthening in the UK. The client, Blyth Valley Borough Council, commissioned the work and is fully supportive of the opportunity to test the technique in demanding conditions.
The ‘Terrafix’ bags that are being used in the project have in fact been in use in other applications for more than 30 years, and have proven long term stability and resistance to abrasion from sand. Although as far as the project team is aware this is the first application of its kind in the UK, these bags are already successfully used for other types of coastal and river bank protection schemes.
The sandbags are an alternative to traditional gabion baskets, which are not a favoured solution due to excessive corrosion caused by the marine environment. Using gabion baskets, there is also a need to bring in rocks or other material to fill the baskets, which can be a time consuming and expensive process.
At Blyth, excess wind blown sand deposited further up the beach has been used to fill the Terrafix bags.
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