Work is underway in Crescent Beach to replace deteriorating structures that exist mainly to slow erosion of the popular waterfront.
Carrie Baron, drainage and environment manager for the City of Surrey, said the $1.4-million effort targeting all 26 of the wooden groynes started last month at the Beecher Street frontage. It is expected to continue until May.
“If it takes too long, we’ll be jumping to the fall to do the next part,” Baron said.
“We don’t want to disrupt activities. We’re trying not to have it affect the people who use it on a daily basis a whole lot, right now even.”
Baron said the the work was requested by the Crescent Beach ratepayers and that discussions have been ongoing for nearly a year.
All necessary environmental approvals are in place, she added.
The new groynes – made of a composite-plastic, marine-friendly material – are anticipated to better weather the conditions than the existing wooden structures, which have been in place for about 15 years.
“We last updated the ones of the Beecher Street frontage… in about 2000, 1999, when we did the big dike-work project,” she said. “But the wood over the years has just gotten beaten. It’s in bad shape.”
While taking no action would not be disastrous, it could speed up erosion, Baron said.