Reefs to the Rescue: Souris Beach and Causeway to be protected in a new way

The Souris causeway and adjacent beach  are on the way to being better protected  through an innovative approach.

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P.E.I. can have its cake and eat it too, according to the head engineer consulting on the project, Mike Davies, in that they can protect the causeway from damage, and also get a better beach out of it. 

"When you drive in across the bridge to the town of Souris, that coastal landscape borders on magic," said Davies.

"It's fantastic, and so to me at least, as a coastal engineer and coastal researcher, preserving that coastal setting is critical to it." 

Back in January a major storm damaged the causeway and prompted the province to do something secure the future of the bridge. 

Phase Two

The first step was to build a seawall between the dunes and the road, and then replace fencing and plant marram grass. Now, Davies' company, Coldwater Consulting Ltd., plans to create two offshore reefs. Davies said it will work well in Souris because it is a wide flat beach with lots of sand exposed at low tide.

We can create and interesting habitat out there.- Mike Davies

"We want to go onto that low tide flat and place some sandstone boulders, as natural material as we can find, that will act to slow down the wave action, dissipate a bit of wave energy and create a bit of a quieter zone in behind them," he said

"That will allow us to have a wider beach which gives us more of that dry beach face that the wind and sun can work on during calm days, and help encourage the growth of the dunes."

The reefs will be around 100 feet wide and stand to about shoulder or head height. The idea being that they won't impact the view of the beach, and the natural elements of the build will not be disruptive to the ecosystem according to Davies. 

"We can create and interesting habitat out there that will have barnacles and molluscs, kelps and algae, and it will be kind of cool for tourists to sort of clamber around," he said.

New for P.E.I.

Davies says to the best of his knowledge and 30 years experience in the field, this is the first time reefs have been used on P.E.I.

The idea is to monitor it over the coming years.- Mike Davies

He has done similar projects in places with comparable tidal exposure in the Caribbean and on Great Lakes shores, and it has worked. He said the best part of doing something that is essentially an experiment is that it can be fixed or adapted if it isn't giving the results that were expected. 

"The idea is to monitor it over the coming years and, a) learn from that experience and, b) adapt as necessary. And that's sort of the preferred path for projects like this." said Davies.

The cost of the second phase is unknown at this point, Davies says it all depends on the cost of the sandstone and trucking it. His company and the province have applied together for federal funding which they should hear about by April. Davies hopes to start work shortly after that in order to have the project finished by tourist season.

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