MARA OKs application for Portrane coastal protection scheme

The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA) has approved Fingal County Council’s application for the construction of a coastal protection scheme at Burrow Beach in Portrane where there have been issues with coastal erosion in recent years. 

It is the first Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) relating to Coastal Protection to obtain a Maritime Area Consent (MAC) from MARA since it was established in 2023 as part of a new streamlined system for regulation of the maritime area.

“The awarding of the consent allows Fingal County Council to make a planning application to An Coimisiún Peanála for coastal protection works at Burrow Beach and the Council hopes to have this lodged in Autumn of this year,” the Council officials said.

Several years ago, the Council engaged specialist engineers from RPS to study the issues within the Rogerstown Estuary and prepare a plan for interim and long-term solutions. This led to the installation of 1km of Seabee concrete units on Burrow Beach which have slowed down the rate of erosion.

Having examined all the long-term options to reduce the rate of erosion at Portrane, RPS proposed the installation of specially designed Y-shaped groynes structures which will be complimented by a beach re-nourishment scheme in order to achieve a suitable beach level.

The plan is to reduce incident wave energy along the coastline by limiting the prevailing water depth and thus mitigating the threat of erosion.

Also, the groynes will regulate the movement of sand across the beach and prevent the sand being stripped from the beach during a single storm event.

This system is already in use at Clacton-on-Sea in England.