Design and Creation of Beaches, Shoreline Protection, Wetlands System, and Overwater Suites

Our services for this new resort in Jamaica included the design and construction/installation of over 350 marine piles to support overwater villas and the associated infrastructure, 600m of beach enhancement, a 300m revetment to protect the property from storm surge, a flushing channel to improve water quality in the bay, and 1km of 6” pressure main.

 

We also designed and built nearshore reef-like breakwaters to provide habitat for juvenile fish and other marine creatures and to protect the new beach, which was nourished with 60,000m3 of imported sand. To provide added assurance that the structures would perform as expected, we did physical hydraulic modeling at IH Cantabria in Spain.

 

Smith Warner has been involved since the earliest stage of planning for this new resort. We guided the project through an extensive environmental permitting process and designed a drainage concept that incorporates an important wetland ecosystem. The concept allows the site to drain freely into the mangrove forest and maintain its natural drainage pattern even as flood levels are increased by 40mm for the 100-year storm event. We carried out an ecosystem assessment and developed mitigation measures that included coral transplanting, wetland rehabilitation, and bromeliad transplanting, all of which were carried out by our team. Monitoring of the rehabilitated areas and transplanted bromeliads is ongoing.

  • Environmental impact assessment

  • Beach and shoreline protection design

  • Corals and vegetation transplantation and long-term monitoring

  • Site-wide drainage system design

  • Wetlands rehabilitation and stabilization

  • Dredging

  • Construction

  • Marine pile installation