“Sand mattress” technology to combat erosion at Kūhiō Beach

Workers place the sand-filled “mattress” on Kūhiō Beach in Waikiki as part of on-going efforts to reduce beach erosion. Image courtesy of the City and County of Honolulu.

Erosion in Waikīkī has been a long-time concern and the City and County of Honolulu is once again looking for solutions to combat the problem. On Sunday, Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced a new pilot project at Kūhiō Beach.

City officials installed what’s called a “sand mattress” there in mid-December 2017 using technology that works with Mother Nature, rather than against it. Inside the mattress are several tubes filled with sand and then more sand was placed on top. The mattress is made up of a special material that traps the sand inside and prevents the water from washing it back out into the ocean. Officials told KHON2 the cost of this pilot project is about $3,000 and the sand mattress is estimated to last 10–20 years.

Previous projects, like moving sand, ended up not working and eventually posed a risk. “There were big chunks of concrete that were kind of loose and [a] tripping hazard,” Dolan Eversole, Waikīkī Beach Management Coordinator with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program, said.

Read more about it and watch the video report at KHON2.