The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has launched the recovery project for Les Deveses beach (Denia), an initiative to stop the regression of the coastline and recover a stable beach width of a minimum of 30 metres, guaranteeing its future stability. The works, which have a budget of €14,459,500.00, are expected to begin at the beginning of 2023.
Les Deveses Beach is located on a stretch of coastline that has been severely damaged by erosion, which has meant that up to 4.5 kilometres of coastline have been lost over the years, which will be recovered thanks to this project.
In this way, the works will consist, fundamentally, of the contribution of sand of marine origin from the underwater deposit, the construction of breakwaters that retain the spilled sand and the dune restoration, to reinforce the natural defence of the coast, through the following actions differentiating two sections.
On the one hand, in Section 1 a breakwater will be built and the extension of the beach width up to 100 metres will be studied, creating a sand store for regeneration of other surrounding beaches. At the same time, 298,113 m3 of sand will be dumped to recover the beach environment.
For its part, in Section 2 another jetty will be created at the height of calle Río Grande and the existing jetty on Setla and Mirarrosa beach will be remodelled and extended by 170 metres. Similarly, in the first section, 293,410 m3 of sand will be poured.
The underwater deposit from which the sand necessary for the regeneration of the coastal front will be extracted is located about 10 km from the stretch of coast between Valencia and Cullera, at a depth between 60 m and 80 m, and about 40 km north of the beach.
Additionally, the creation of new dune cords is proposed, where they have disappeared. The dune restoration will consist of the elimination of invasive species, the contribution of 50,195 m3 of sand (of the same origin as that used in the regeneration), the placement of collectors, the planting of dune vegetation and the installation of soft fences and piloted walkways made out of wood.
The volume of sand necessary for the regeneration of the coastline (beach contribution and dune restoration) is estimated at a total of about 641,718 m3.
REPAIR AND PREVENT EROSION
In 2015, the Strategy for the Protection of the stretch of Coast between the Port of Valencia and the Port of Denia was approved. This document provides as a high priority, the actions that must be undertaken on Les Deveses beach to repair and prevent its erosion.
Once the “Recovery of the Les Deveses beach, TM de Denia (Alicante)” project has been drawn up, and after the processing of the appropriate and mandatory public information and official information, by resolution of July 23, 2021, the General Directorate of Quality and Environmental Evaluation, dependent on MITECO, formulates a favourable Environmental Impact Statement, which was published in the BOE on August 10, 2021.
By resolution of November 3, 2021, the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea definitively approves the aforementioned project. In turn, on July 30, 2022, the tender notice for the works is published in the BOE.
Finally, on December 14 of this year, the award contract has been formalised, with the company UTE LES DEVESES, which will have an execution period of 12 months.
