Sand Replacement Project Closes Beaches
The area between 28th Street and the Santa Ana River will be closed to beach-goers on weekdays until Dec. 2 while the city conducts a sand replacement project, officials said this week.
“There is never any good time to close the beach,” said Marla Matlove, a city engineer, because that area draws surfers from across the county. “But we want to make sure the beach doesn’t disappear.”
Because of the geography of Newport Beach and the way the waves hit the shore, some stretches of beach lose sand while others gain it, she said. The beaches around the Santa Ana River Jetty tend to gain sand; those farther south lose it.
Since the 1960s, the city has periodically shut the beaches and moved sand to avoid problems like those facing the Surfside area of Seal Beach, where beach erosion is so severe that homes are threatened every winter by high surf.
“They have almost no sand left in parts of Seal Beach, and that could happen here in Newport,” Matlove said.
The beaches will be closed weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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