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NEWPORT BEACH : County to Widen Beach in January

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Residents in the West Newport area will gain a little more beach in January when the county begins pumping thousands of pounds of sand from Huntington Beach to the waters between 48th and 36th streets.

The county project was approved by the City Council this week.

A stretch of beach will be widened by about 25 feet in an area that has averaged 250 to 300 feet wide. The sand is being moved from an area where the beach is at times more than 700 feet wide.

The 50,000 cubic yards of sand, weighing more than 80,000 tons, will be pumped through a 12-inch dredging pipe along the mile and a half of coastline, where it will be deposited about 50 feet from the shoreline. The pipe will be partially buried under the sand.

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The project is part of the widening of the Santa Ana flood channel and is expected to take two to three months, said Public Works Director Ben Nolan.

“This particular project is to realign the Huntington Beach channel, and serves as advance preparation for the Santa Ana flood channel project,” Nolan said. “The idea is to keep the sand on the beach, so that it is not lost to the (shoreline).”

The final width of the beach should not affect the surf, he added.

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