T-Street Beach
The T-Street beach is one of the most popular surfing beaches in San Clemente due to the presence of an offshore rocky reef, which also serves to protect the sandy beach from erosion. This beach will also benefit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, receiving 251,000 cubic yards of sand to rebuild an additional 50 feet of beach width from Linda Lane to T-Street.
SEDIMENT CHARACTERISTICS: This beach is characterized by medium-grained sand with occasional cobble/gravel cusps forming and disappearing.
INFRASTRUCTURE: The City has a considerable amount of infrastructure here, including the a pedestrian bridge over the railroad, restrooms, concession stands, and covered picnic tables.
ARMORING: The railroad is mostly separated by the ocean by a wide sandy beach and/or City-owned infrastructure so there is no need for significant revetments. The City undertakes a yearly program to "push" sand in front of the infrastructure to protect from winter wave action.
UNIQUE CHALLENGES: Although this beach is relatively stable, protecting this infrastructure is obviously a priority for the City. The current sand replenishment project is scheduled to continue every six years for the next 50 years. Future replenishments will require the City to pay half (either directly or with assistance from grants) so funding of the future projects is the most significant issue here.
PUBLIC ACCESS: This is one of the most popular beach in San Clemente, with ample vertical and lateral public access and a limited amount parking on the bluff.
SURF RESOURCES: The presence of the T-Street rocky reef creates a ????? surf. Additionally, because the waves first break against the reef, they have decreased energy once they hit the sandy beach and therefore cause less erosion. Monitoring of the surfing conditions should be undertaken during the
The images below illustrate the evolution of Cyprus Shores beach, which appears to have lost width between 1972 and 1989, but remained fairly stable from 1989 through 2022.
T-Street 1972
T-Street 1989
T-Street 2004
T-Street beach 2019
T-Street Beach 2021
T-Street Beach 2023
The image below illustrates the increase of berm height at T-Street, probably due to the City’s practice of using earth-moving equipment to “push” sand up in front of infrastructure in the fall, in order to protect against erosion. Beach width has remained fairly stable.
Below, data from UC-Irvine demonstrate the relative stability of T-Street beach from 1995-2021. The beach always varied greatly in width depending on the season. Historically, the sand that was moved offshore was always eventually moved back onshore.
Gallery of historical photos from T-Street beach prior to 2015. (these are place-holders, need to get better ones, maybe about nine total).
Another gallery of recent photos.