Repairs at Point No Point underway, with new beach access drawing interest

Late last December in Hansville, a king tide buoyed by heavy rains broke through the beach berm and flooded Point No Point road. The road was covered in about a foot of water, temporarily stranding residents and preventing access to the historic lighthouse, and the water in the lowlands surrounding Point No Point Lighthouse did not recede, even when the tide did.

As summer begins and crowds start to return to the popular beach, a few immediate changes are in place as Kitsap County plans some more significant fixes to a beach berm to prevent another flood.

The only visible change from before the winter storms is a large barrier covered with black plastic running alongside Point No Point road, which is a temporary measure against flooding. The main parking lot at Point No Point looks completely undisturbed, though it remains closed to the visitors due to significant damage, according to Parks Director Alex Wisniewski.

Fortunately, beach goers have been provided another option.

Although the beach has remained open since December, on May 1 the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) opened its parking lot a few hundred yards west on Point No Point Road, so that beachgoers would not park on the side of the road and disturb residents. Visitors seem to be enjoying the beach in front of the WDFW parking lot so much that they are choosing to set up there rather than navigate the signs blocking off NE Point No Point Road or make the five-minute walk to the lighthouse beach.

“It’s really pretty,” said Brian Ulrich, who grew up in the area and was visiting his grandmother when he made a visit to the beach earlier this week. “There’s not too many sandy beaches around here.”

The beach in front of the WDFW parking lot is slightly more protected from the wind and the chill than Point No Point beach, which juts out into the Puget Sound. The sand is smoother. But access will likely only last until the county's parking lot reopens.

"While we work closely with WDFW, we ultimately do not control the opening and closing of this parking area or beach," Wisniewski said.

The work to repair the damaged area is slated to begin this fall.

The first phase of the Point No Point project will repair the damage on the North Beach from the winter storms. In order to replace material that was swept away and prevent erosion, a fibrous yarn net called coir matting will be placed within the fill, along with new vegetation that will hold the sand together. Construction is targeted for September or October of this year.

Any construction that would add to the barrier would have to undergo a more rigorous review, so construction would likely take place sometime between next July and February 2025. Only after all work has been completed will the main parking lot reopen.

In order to prevent another berm breach during the coming winter, Wisniewski says that they plan to either keep the existing "super sack" sandbag wall, or some other form of secondary protection. However, he notes that the December 2022 event was an outlier, coming in two feet higher than the predicted king tide due to an uncommon low-pressure event.

The more permanent form of additional protection, which must wait for permitting, is a secondary dune adjacent to the road, which would be two feet higher than the reconstructed North Beach. In addition, the parks department plans on rebuilding the old rock revetment, which is currently allowing water to flow through the spaces between the rock onto the lighthouse, according to Wisniewski. All these improvements should “provide increased stability to the shoreline, increasing its ability to sustain severe weather events,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Point No Point Park, Lighthouse repairs underway after flood