OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) - A section of Ocean Springs Front Beach which has been a problem area for years became more so after recent heavy rains washed away nearly all of what little sand was there.
As a result, a section of the beach sidewalk which runs the length of Front Beach is in jeopardy of collapse.
Already, a small section of that area of the sidewalk is cracking and breaking away. In addition, a larger section of the sidewalk is breaking away from the decorative concrete wall.
The city’s Public Works crew has placed barricades along that stretch of the sidewalk to warn users of the sidewalk’s instability.
Construction on the $1.8 million sidewalk began in 2010 and was completed in mid-2011. It was paid for entirely by a Community Development Block Grant.
Since its completion, it has become overwhelmingly popular with walkers, joggers, bike riders, those with pets and other beach users.
The sidewalk and accompanying landscaping were city projects and thus the city’s responsibility to maintain.
Maintenance of the sand beach and seawall, meanwhile, fall to the Jackson County Board of Supervisors, paid for through the county’s Seawall tax.
Ocean Springs aldermen this week asked Mayor Connie Moran to contact Jackson County supervisors for emergency assistance in replenishing the sand which has eroded away from that section of sidewalk.
“We are seriously in jeopardy of losing that section of sidewalk,” said alderman Matt McDonnell. “If that happens, your beach walkway is seriously handicapped.”
McDonnell said the problem shouldn’t be a complete surprise, noting the sidewalk is built on “shifting sand.”
“I certainly hope that in the future if we get a chance to address this,” he said, “we will tie the sidewalk back in to the toe of the seawall to give it greater stability.”
Moran said sand erosion in that second of Front Beach has been a problem as long as she can remember.
“The toe of the seawall itself was exposed when I was in high school in the 1970’s,” she said. “It’s the way the tide comes in, diagonally. You can put sand there until doomsday and it will continue to erode.”
Moran said county Road Manager Joe O’Neal would be out to look at the problem.
She has also contacted the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) in the hopes the city might qualify for some funding to make repairs given the heavy rains which contributed to the problem.
“All the rain just washed it away,” she said. “But without sand there, it will just continue to deteriorate. So that’s the first order of business — to get sand there.”
A long term solution to the problem might be what Moran called a “level shoreline project,” in which rocks are used to create a natural jetty and plants are planted at the shoreline to hold the sand in place.
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Information from: The Mississippi Press, https://www.gulflive.com
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