Regional experts in Puget Sound coastal processes, management and cost effective design since 1993.
Category for all CGS projects posted on the site. Can be completed or in-progress.
In 2019, CGS completed the design of this soft shore protection project for at a low-elevation, high wave energy site on Fidalgo Island. The design is intended to mitigate flood risk under for future conditions of sea level rise.
Left: Before | Right: After (Images: CGS)
CGS is providing oversight of project construction, which includes the installation of large buried wood and a gravel berm (completed) and planting of native backshore vegetation (coming soon!).
1.6 miles of Birch Bay beach nourishment has begun! On the ground construction started in early January for what is thought to be the largest beach nourishment project in the greater Puget Sound region (210,000 tons)!
This extensive beach nourishment endeavor is intended to create a broad beach backshore and walking trail. The project was first conceived in 1975 by Wolf Bauer. Jim Johannessen of CGS has worked on several stages of this project over the course of its history. CGS was a key beach designer for the consultant team, working for Whatcom County Public Works.
Work is occurring at the south end of the project most evenings through February 15 and will start again after Labor Day continuing northward.
Waypoint Park beach, Bellingham, Washington. Photo courtesy of the Port of Bellingham.
Bellingham’s Waypoint Park beach made headlines on May 20th! The site cleanup and beach creation at Waypoint joins three others as winner of “America’s Best Restored Beach”, an award given each year by the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. Waypoint Park is one of two CGS projects to win this award: the Port of Bellingham’s Marine Park won the title in 2009.
The other 2019 winners are:
Congratulations to the project teams who restored these beaches!
Read the Bellingham Herald announcement here.
And the original ASBPA announcement with information on all the projects here.
Happy New Year! This year we resolve to complete more shore armor removal projects like this one: Sunlight Shores community beach on Whidbey Island was once a bank lined with creosote treated wood piles, large angular boulders, debris, and fill. Now it is a beautiful, resilient beach with restored salt marsh habitat, new native plantings, and improved community beach access. To view a time lapse of the armor removal and beach restoration process, click on the video below or follow this link.
Here is the project in numbers:
This was a project by the Northwest Straits Foundation with a grant from the Salmon Funding Recovery Board. CGS completed site assessments, meetings with landowners, site mapping, permit and final design drawings and assisted the NWSF with construction oversight. Here’s to more exciting restoration projects in the new year!