Another Southsea beach nourishment campaign to take place this winter

Southsea’s beach between the Pyramids and the Coffee Cup café in Eastney (Portsmouth, UK) will be rebuilt this winter when more than one million tonnes of shingle is imported by dredger between October 2025 and March 2026.

The significant increase will see the beach double in size when shingle is dredged locally from the Solent near the Isle of Wight and deposited onto the beach by a pipeline from the dredger.

Similar work was undertaken on a smaller scale earlier this year during beach import work along the beach in front of Southsea Common.

Southsea Coastal Scheme Project Executive Marc Bryan said: “We’ve chosen to build a larger shingle beach in this area because they’re great at absorbing wave energy which in turn helps reduce erosion and protects homes and businesses from coastal flooding. The new beach will adapt to rising seas and our changing climate while still providing the required standard of protection. It will be easily maintained and can be topped up if needed in the future.”

Initial works will start in October 2025 with the installation of a new outfall extension from Canoe Lake. From November 2025, a one meter diameter pipeline will be laid across the beach to the west of South Parade Pier to discharge the new shingle.

During the shingle discharging, access to the beach will be limited for safety reasons with some stepped access over the pipeline available. Following this, the new beach material will be transported via heavy machinery which will work tidally along the beach between South Parade Pier and the Coffee Cup.

This section of beach will be closed to the public during the work and will reopen section-by-section as work is complete, starting at the Coffee Cup and working west.

The promenade and local seafront businesses will remain open as usual, but there will be some localized road closures at The Dell for the duration of the works. Once all the beach import work is complete in March 2026, main construction works for the new defences in this area will begin.