WAILUA — The state Department of Transportation plan to rebuild the Wailua Beach shoreline using patented technology have gotten a shot in the arm.
State Rep. Nadine Nakamura announced the project received $1.15 million in capital improvement projects funding late last month.
The Kuhio Highway Emergency Shoreline Mitigation design includes an ungrouted rock revetment to protect infrastructure from extreme weather events, and Sandsaver modules facing the shore.
Each polyethylene-plastic Sandsaver, which weighs approximately 5,200 pounds when filled with concrete, features rows of conical tubes. Incoming waves hit the tubes’ wide end, and recede through the narrow end.
“The Sandsaver works by using the energy of breaking waves to thrust suspended sand particles up the beach while simultaneously dissipating the energy of the waves, thereby restoring the sand and reducing overall erosion to the beach,” the state DOT said, in correspondence provided by Nakamura.
The state DOT and partners at the University of Hawai‘i propose to study wave action along Wailua Beach using acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) before the Sandsavers go into the water.
Divers would install six such instruments at various depths off Wailua Beach.
“At these six locations, ADCPs will gather the full-wave spectrum and current velocity of the water column to support the location and configuration of the Sandsavers,” the state DOT said.
The state DOT’s plans also include the installation of signs, traffic delineators, a concrete slab and boulders. Naupaka will also be planted.
The emergency shoreline mitigation project is expected to begin in April 2023, according to state DOT Kaua‘i District Engineer Larry Dill.
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
