The heavy equipment just moved out of Waialae Beach Park a few days ago after spending several weeks clearing tons of sand blocking the mouth of Kapakahi Stream.
This was the view early this morning. Sand is already migrating back, already nearly blocking the stream. A few more high tides and it will be back nearly to where it was before all the recent effort.
I don’t know what the answer here is. If you have any clue about this, please chime in with a comment!
The mouth of Kapakahi Stream, which cuts through Waialae Beach Park.
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If you find a solution, Kailua needs to know it. Our steam at Kailua Beach is constantly clogged and immediately fills in after it is cleaned out.
Probably acceptance that both areas will need to be cleared out on a regular basis.
Why continue to fight the ocean? You are going to lose.
If you look at a lot of natural stream entries you will see that a bar and a pool behind the beach are quite common on low lying beaches. Clever design of a weir or a barrier might encourage the sand to clear the entry, but that depends a lot on local wave patterns and currents. the best course is probably to simply accept that this will be the case and adapt the remainder of the area’s use to this reality.
What is the real goal? Is it to keep the stream mouth from becoming a stagnant pool? If so, perhaps a mechanical solution (an underground pipe and a pump?) would be more effective, less expensive and better for the environment than regular dredging.