BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 16th October 2020) – Officials say the beach at the southern section of Frigate Bay will be wider and longer for the comfort of beach goers after the $4 million beach enhancement project, currently underway, is completed in mid-January 2021.
“Basically, this end of the beach is the best end of the beach. It’s practically the only end of the beach that you can swim on right now so what we’re trying to do is remedy the central and southern portions of the beach so by the time that we’re done, you can basically swim at the central and swim at the southern portions because the beach nourishment process would basically cover …there’s a reef that lying along the beach there that makes it difficult for beach goers to enjoy the beach,” explained Gregoire Williams of Trans-Global Engineering Ltd.
He made the disclosure during a media walkthrough tour, organised by the Ministry of Tourism, to provide an overview on the progress on renovations of the Frigate Bay Strip conducted on Friday 9th October 2020.
Williams went on further to talk about covering the beach as he pointed out the experience of beach goers having to step over stones, and as a result most people go to Cockleshell Beach and other beaches.
“But once we’re finished, it would complement the work that’s being done on the landslide of the beach,” he added.
The work being carried out involves two local contractors with Rock and Dirt Construction Ltd. handling the land side work and St.Kitts Marine Works for the marine-based work with combined project cost in the region of $4 million.
The project is estimated to be about four months with work having started late September and should be completed around mid-January 2021.
Williams said that it is a three-step process which involves an off shore break water, onshore groynes and beach nourishment process.
“The offshore breakwater is basically to attenuate the wave energy in the central and southern portions of the beach. The groynes , those are basically to anchor the beach nourishment as well as stop the longshore movement of the sediment once the material is placed, and the final step is the beach nourishment process which is basically dredging and pumping the sand so that you can have a widened beach and something that the public would be pleased with.”
According to him, the beach would be 50 meters once completed from the crest of the beach back to the beach bars.
Asked by this reporter about what considerations are made carrying out such works in a natural environment, he commented: “There would be silk fences installed around the work area so that any material that is wash up from the dredging process would be captured by the silk fences and those would be disposed of so it wouldn’t affect the marine environment.”
Along the tour, Williams talked about the first step of the process.
“Rock and Dirt would deliver the stones at the drop site. They would then place it in a wash pit which would basically remove all the mud and debris from the quarry because it’s an environmentally friendly project. Once that is removed, they’ll take it and stockpile it and then the second contractor which is St.Kitts Marine Works, they would load it on the barge, take it off site and then construct the break water.
Media workers were also shown the Wash Pit which he said is basically a riprap slope.
“… the stones at the bottom a pit was excavated in the sand, lined with stones and put a geotextile material so that when the material is washed off it would be trapped in the geotextile and it can be removed safely off site and disposed of.”
He also touched on pumping of salt water used to wash the material off the stones noting that in the background there is a barge which then loads then on the barge and then takes them off shore for the construction of the submerged breakwater. He said the entire process is all below the surface of the low water level so basically what they’ll be doing is working in the background so even though the structure is there, you wouldn’t be able to see them because it would sit basically one foot below the finish water level and one foot below the sand level.
As told by him, off shore for the break waters, there would be two 80 metres in length; one starting off Boozies On The Beach and then the other one would start off of Patsy’s Beach Bar.
For the groynes, he said there would be three with one directly off of Inon’s that would be about 25metres out, another one in between Patsy’s and Oceans Beach Bar at 25 metres and another one in between Chinchilla’s and Shiggidy Shack which is 30 metres out.
Meanwhile Minister of Tourism Lindsay Grant told reporters that the work being done is an extension of what has been going on for the last year or two with the Strip development. As pointed out by him, however, the work on the Strip and the current enhancement project are separate.
“The objective is to enhance the beach. As you heard the technocrats say, we’re going to get a longer beach, a wider beach; a beach more pleasing on the feet of the swimmers who come here daily. We felt it necessary because we feel this is one of the iconic beaches in St.Kitts and Nevis and we must preserve it. Had we not moved to preserve this beach, the beach as you recognise has already been eroding significantly. We also see the same development in the Friars Bay area, and we intend after we would have completed this, and made sure that’s it in good standing t then move to the Friars Bay area; all in an attempt to preserve our beaches which are significant for our tourism industry.”