Big Bay Beach reopened on Thursday December 14 in time for the peak holiday season.
On Wednesday June 7, massive storm swells and gale-force winds pummelled the city’s coastline, and Big Bay Beach saw some of the worst of it, with dunes collapsing (“Official injured at beach,” Tabletalk, June 14).
The storm surge stripped away some 10m of dune cordon and ruined public infrastructure.
The City launched clean-ups to remove tons of debris from the coast, but some beaches, including Big Bay, remained closed because the storm had made the dunes dangerously unstable.
In July, mayor Patricia de Lille allocated emergency funding to fix Big Bay Beach – a popular tourist drawcard – and contractors were appointed in September. From then, the race was on to have the beach ready for the holiday rush.
“The contractors and City officials have worked tirelessly to achieve this goal,” said Suzette Little, the mayoral committee member for area north. “It is remarkable to see the change from the damaged coastline that we had in June to what is in front of us today. Some final work on the rehabilitation remains to be completed and this will be done in January… Big Bay remains one of the jewels on our coastline and we wish everyone a wonderful summer season on this beach.”
