Bottom Sand Will Come Out on Top at Sail Bay

Tons of sand from the floor of Mission Bay will become beach topsoil when construction begins within four weeks on a project to create a wider beach along Sail Bay.

The city is finalizing a contract with a dredging firm to take about 470,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of the bay as part of a $5.5-million project to upgrade the beach and to make it more attractive to the public.

Ed Firkins, program development officer for the city Park and Recreation Department, said the top three feet of bay bottom, about 205,000 cubic yards, will be dumped onto Fiesta Island near the Over-the-Line fields because it is too fine and doesn’t meet Army Corps of Engineers standards, which require man-made beach improvements to match existing beach granules.

The rest of the floor sand will be used to create a 70- to 150-foot beach, which is currently underwater at high tide.

Firkins said the project is minuscule compared to the rest of Mission Beach, which was a mud flat until it was converted into a recreation haven after World War II.

“The entire Mission Bay area was created,” he said. “Mother Nature didn’t do that.”

Mikel Haas, an aide to City Councilman Mike Gotch, said the Sail Bay project has been planned for more than seven years, slowed by Sail Bay residents who wanted to keep the beach secluded.

“Every obstacle and every stumbling block has been thrown in front of this project,” Haas said.