Holding the Highway Act, the Department of Highways has a duty to construct and maintain roads in the country. Because its legal prescription focused only on the roads, it was not surprising that the Department of Highways solely concentrated on the road protection. Since the feasibility study carried out by the Marine Department took too long the time, the Department of Highways could not wait otherwise its road would vanish. However, it would have been better if it had considered the community’s livelihood and the disappearing sandy beach.
4.5. Integrated design of protection structures
Past attempts carried out by various stakeholders taught the Marine Department to integrate community’s requirements into the design process. The demands of the communities included (a) the structures should not prevent them to move their boats across the berm or to navigate to the sea, (b) the structures should be able to prevent clogging of natural creeks and rivers, (c) the communities needed the sheltered area to anchor their boats during storms, and (d) they wanted the sandy beach to be as wide as possible. These conditions led to a conclusion of detached breakwaters and beach nourishment.
Breakwaters that were 40-m long, 60-m apart, and 50-m offshore (Fig. 7b and c) were proved by GENESIS to be effective in protecting the beach (Fig. 7a). Due to the fact that shoreline along the downdrift side of the last breakwater would inevitably expe- rience severe erosion, there was a need to locate the last break- water at a suitable location. Undeveloped land, especially at the tip of the spit was considered the appropriate stop (Fig. 1). Gaps