Milford on Sea Beach recharge
New Forest District Council Coast Protection Group is planning the following programmed coastal maintenance works this autumn.
Timber groyne maintenance September 2022
In September 2022, timber groyne maintenance will be undertaken on three groynes at the western end of the groyne field (opposite the car park / bowls club). The works will be carried out by Earlcoate Construction Ltd and will be undertaking in a similar manner to the previous maintenance works. As these works require good weather and tides, some of the works will be outside of normal working hours, such as early or late in the day or at the weekend.
The work will commence w/c 5 September 2022, with mobilisation and setting up of the works compound at the eastern end of Hurst Road Amenity Car Park. The set of steps beside the toilets will then be closed and the works access ramp put into position for plant to access the beach. Pedestrian access along the lower promenade will be restricted at this point but will remain accessible along other sections. The works are scheduled to last approximately 8 weeks, until the end of October, subject to favourable weather and tidal conditions.
Beach recharge October 2022
Beach levels and volumes are closely monitored with regular surveys and inspections. At present, levels are low at the eastern end of Milford beach, so to improve this, a shingle recharge is programmed to commence at the beginning of October. Several thousand tonnes of beach material will be deposited during these works, over a period of around 3-weeks. The work will be a similar operation to that undertaken in past years. Once placed, the material will naturally move and re-profile under normal coastal processes.
During the works, lorries will enter Hurst Road West Amenity Car Park to unload each delivery. The material will be tipped on to the beach using a temporary ramp. Machinery working on the frontage will then move the material around so that each groyne bay has the required volume of material. Completed areas will be opened as soon as practical.
The recharge work will offer the following benefits:
- increased protection to the seawall
- a reduction in the height between the level of the lower promenade and the beach
- new material will cover up much of the recently exposed metal and concrete (which is usually buried deep in the beach)
Public safety will be managed by Banksmen located around the site (as necessary) and in the car park during vehicle movements. As before, the coastal path will be subject to a signed diversion route around the compound in order to maintain a continuous route across a suitable surface.
The access ramp (set up for the timber works element) will again be used in order to transfer the recharge material (unloaded from the lorries) to the beach. As a result, the steps beside the toilets will remain closed for these works and pedestrian access along the lower promenade will be restricted at this point, but will remain accessible along other sections.
This time both the beach recharge and timber work will be carried out as one combined operation (by Earlcoate Construction Ltd).
Ongoing buried beach hazards
An unseasonably large storm which passed through the area during the spring bank holiday weekend caused considerable lowering of the beach at Milford-on-Sea just at the start of the summer period. Following this, a decision was made to close off two of the groyne bays near to the concrete slope beach access point at the eastern end of the line of beach huts.
Whilst beach levels were low, the New Forest District Council Coast Protection Group have addressed many of these issues working with contractors to undertake the following:
- cutting back exposed metal, some of the metal had formed sharp spikes.
- clearance of significant volumes of shingle from the promenade.
- temporary warning signage to alert beach users of the underwater hazards and the sudden drop from height at the edge of the promenade
A section of submerged metal still exists at the eastern end of the beach hut fronted promenade. To reduce the hazard of this, specialist divers with metal cutting equipment have been contracted to cut these thick metal sheets under the water. This will be undertaken on Monday 12 September.
Despite the ongoing work to clear hazards, it should be noted that beaches are typically very dynamic, and there is always a possibility of encountering submerged hazards when using any beach.
NFDC apologises for any inconvenience caused by these works, with the request that beach users bear with us during the works, in the hope that the outcomes will be beneficial to all once complete.
If you have any queries, please contact:
Carol Whitfield, New Forest District Council Site supervisor: Carol.Whitfield@NFDC.GOV.UK
Peter Ferguson, New Forest District Council Coastal Projects Engineer: Peter.Ferguson@NFDC.gov.uk
Technical Note 3 (PDF) [498KB]
Share this page
