Meeting on Night, Weekend Work at Crown Beach — and Why EBRPD Needs More Time to Replace Sand

SUMMARY

The City of Alameda will hold a community meeting Monday on an emergency request to allow evening and weekend construction work on the Crown Beach sand replacement project.

East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) officials say they can't finish the project by Nov. 30 — when regional permits for the work expire — without extending construction hours. They are asking the city for permission to work until 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

The community meeting will let local residents — especially those who live along or close to Shoreline and Westline Drives — hear about the project and comment on noise, light and safety impacts of evening and weekend work, according to a city press release.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers, 2263 Santa Clara Ave.

If you can't attend the meeting but want to weigh in, you may email your comments to manager@alamedaca.gov.

City officials will gauge the community’s tolerance for the extended hours, especially those who live near the beach, and then make the appropriate conditions of approval to EBRPD, the city press release says.

DETAILS

The nearly $5.7 million beach restoration project kicked off Oct. 1 and was scheduled to end by Nov. 30. It involves pumping 82,600 cubic yards of new sand, mixed with water, from offshore barges to the beach via a 9,000-foot-long pipeline.

Diane Althoff, EBRPD's chief of design and construction, said Tuesday the project is behind schedule because it proved tougher than expected to pump the coarse-grained sand through a nearly two-mile-long pipeline.

The project is using sand from a commercial dredging operation near Angel Island.

"This type of sand mining and delivery hasn't been done in San Francisco Bay in many years," Althoff said.

Ghilotti Bros. Inc., the construction company performing the work, had pump breakdowns and had to add a booster pump to the project equipment, she said.

"It's in full production now, but it was slow getting started," Althoff said.

She said barges can only come close enough to the beach to pump the sand at high tide. That still puts them about a mile and a half offshore, because of the shallow Bay waters around Alameda.

Extended hours would allow the contractors to work during two high tide periods on some days, Althoff said.

She said the park district's permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires the work that's done in the water — the sand mining and delivery — to be completed by Nov. 30 for the protection of Bay habitat and local fish species.

EBRPD's permits give the district until Dec. 31 to complete the land portion of the job, "dewatering" the sand-water mixture from the barges and using bulldozers to grade the beach into its final form.

Park district officials have said delivery of the sand via barge and pipeline was chosen to avoid heavy truck traffic through Alameda, especially in residential areas.

"The park district welcomes the opportunity to meet with local residents next week," Althoff said.

You may read more about the sand replacement project in "Bringing Back the Sand to Alameda's Beaches."

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