''Geotubes' come with some wrinkles - December 11, 1998
By JEFF BURLINGAME - DAILY WORLD WRITER, The Aberdeen Daily World
OCEAN SHORES - After 21Ú2 years of non-stop battles with state agencies and environmental groups, the City of Ocean Shores has begun embedding 540 feet of protective "geotubes" in a dune north of the North Jetty.
Work on the huge sausage-shaped bags filled with sand began Monday morning. Thus far, it hasn't been smooth sailing.
Wave energy shattered the first tube early this week, sending pieces floating out into the surf, according to Sue Patnude, the city's director of community development.
"We had to rescue it," Patnude said this morning. A second type of material used Wednesday bent in half like a straw, she said.
"It's all a matter of stops and starts," Patnude explained. "It's the first time we've ever done this."
She expects the kinks to be worked out and the project to be completed soon.
Failure to place the geotubes in the dune would likely mean a breach some time this winter, consultants say. That breach would flood low-lying areas in the southern end of town and jeopardize millions of dollars in municipal utilities and private property.
Work on the $150,000 project funded by the state is being done by IMCO General Construction of Bellingham. The company's dump trucks, generators, excavator, large four-wheel-drive, extendible boom forklift and huge light towers currently line the beach.
Excavation is the first step in the geotube embedding process. After the affected area is cleared, the empty tubes are placed in the sand, staked and tied down with ropes.
The tubing is then filled with seawater, which is slowly replaced with a water-sand combination. The water is eventually removed until only sand remains.
The tubes will then be covered with sand. In time, the sand will be washed away, City Manager Jack McKenzie said this morning, but a certain amount of sand will also accrete near the tubes.
The geotubes will help to dissipate the force of the waves before they hit the eroding dune.
City officials had hoped to have the tubes in place by the first week of November, but a myriad of permitting problems and legal roadblocks delayed the project.
Now, the only potential problem is the weather.
Construction work hinges upon calm winds and low tides. During the month of November, the city got everything but.
Nearly 16 inches of rain fell on Ocean Shores during November, often accompanied by wind gusts approaching 70 mph. The combination of the two would typically spell disaster to the dune - which in some places is only 20 feet wide.
But most of the winds came from the east, and spared the dune. Southwest winds, which create huge swells and eat away at the dune, were basically non-existent.
The geotubes are intended to be in place for at least one year, while the city continues to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on a long-term erosion control solution, Patnude said.
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