Blaine

Marine Park lies just south of the Peace Arch in Blaine. I posted from here in January 2010 and again in April 2016. The peninsula on which the wharf district is built was created largely (entirely?) from dredged material (though probably of different vintages). The outer (northwestern) edge had been armored with rock and concrete and a variety of old debris, resulting in nice views, but an ugly shoreline where access to the water can be hazardous.

The one exception was a small beach that had formed where the ragged edge of the peninsula happened to offer an appropriate configuration. But this actually provides a very nice template for future work - since it shows what orientation, what sediment size, and what beach and berm profile works best. The best model for a created beach is the beach next door!

AERIAL VIEW

A couple of years ago the city began resculpting the edge and created a pocket beach. They improved the rock work at a couple of small promontories, excavated the rock and fill between them, and added gravel. Orientation is key on these pocket beaches and this one may still be adjusting. The mobile sand and gravel is wanting to stay in the northeastern half of the little cove, leaving the western end a steeper slope of coarse cobble and rock, but it looks like overall the project has worked out well.

This project was limited to just one segment of shoreline, but it sounds like there's interest in extending this approach to additional segments in the future. You still need rocky hard points to anchor and contain the beaches, but the rock need not be old construction debris. And most of the shoreline can be a series of small beaches.