The San Clemente Shoreline Project is underway once again, after a four-month delay that included a frantic push for new permits and changes to the project's schedule.
Contractor Manson Construction began placing sand at the City of San Clemente's beach near the Municipal Pier on Thursday, April 25, according to Mayor Victor Cabral, who added that the actions came without city officials receiving a heads-up.
The restart coincides with the original timeline the city announced on Friday, April 19, in which sand placement was expected to begin this week. However, it conflicts with Cabral's reported anticipation for the project to resume the week of April 29 following the discovery of issues with Manson's machinery.
The city's April 19 release advised residents and visitors to the Pier Bowl area of the commencement of site preparations near the base of the pier and the return of construction equipment and materials to the Pier Bowl parking lot's upper portion.
Cabral told San Clemente Times in a separate conversation Wednesday, April 24, that officials hoped to see the project begin next week and that the restart would be dependent on Manson's ability to bring its machinery to San Clemente.
After the project, which is intended to deliver roughly 251,000 cubic yards of sand to San Clemente’s main beach between Linda Lane and T-Street, kicked off in December 2023, its momentum slowed after city officials expressed disappointment in the cobble being dredged onto the beach.
Manson Construction informed the project lead, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that it was postponing the project and subsequently moved operations south to fulfill projects in Solana Beach and Encinitas. As the Encinitas project neared completion, a new borrow site at Surfside Sunset in north Orange County emerged, and contracted Coastal Administrator Leslea Meyerhoff informed the San Clemente City Council that the Shoreline Project was projected to resume near the end of April.
The new project operations will occur 24 hours a day, with temporary beach closures still being enforced.
Cabral told SC Timeson Wednesday that the project will now be divided in half, as the city will only see 26 days of dredging according to the project’s permitting. Instead of placing the planned 50-foot-wide beach, 45 feet of sand will be placed north and south of the pier.
“It’s not all the sand that we purchased,” he said. “Half of it, at least, will not come until October, and that'll be the last five feet of sand that we've contracted for.”
The significant amount of volume in the final five feet represents the second half of sand that will be placed.
As for whether the city will be forced to pay an estimated additional $2.5 million to resume the project, a figure that emerged in late March, Cabral said the city will be held responsible as part of the contract details unless something changes.
Currently in Washington, D.C., as the Supreme Court hears a case concerning homelessness and sleeping in public, Cabral has met with members of Congressional committees with oversight of the Army Corps. Those conversations have revolved around urging the Army Corps to deliver the sand and seeking resources to offset the $2.5 million cost.
“We’re asking the Army Corps and the relevant subcommittees in the (House of Representatives) and the Senate to find the money or to direct them to find the money,” he added. “We’re just working all angles.”
The final portion of the project anticipated to begin in October has not yet been permitted, according to Cabral, who said the Army Corps still needs to file paperwork for the project.
Still, he said the process “should be no problem” and that the city doesn’t expect any difficulties in pushing the project through.
More information about the Shoreline Project is available at san-clemente.org/beachsand.