SEAN WILLIS/Stuff.co.nz

Auckland will have a new beach spot when the Onehunga Restoration Project is completed, adding to the already popular Mission Bay and Orewa beaches.

Auckland's beaches might look natural but 20 popular spots have ongoing maintenance or in the case of a major new project in Onehunga project, are completely manmade.

Nine entirely new beaches are being created as part of the Onehunga Foreshore Restoration Project, which is thought to be the world's largest foreshore reclamation project for recreational purposes.

When finished, a 6.8 hectare seaside park on reclaimed land will feature nine beaches.

Three of the beaches will be sandy for swimming, requiring about 11,000 cubic metres of sand to be trucked in from Ports of Auckland.

The new coastline will stretch more than 1 kilometre. The project is costing $28 million - $18m from NZTA and $10m from the council's Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board.

The foreshore, which is Auckland Council's parks department's largest capital project, will open in time for next summer.

Auckland Council parks manager Jane Aickin said the Onehunga project might be the biggest beach development, but numerous other beaches across Auckland were "nourished" with sand brought in from other places or redistributed along the beach.

Auckland had more than 1600km of coastline and some of them needed intense management to provide coastal protection and make the beaches look better, Aickin said.

Originally posted here:

Auckland builds new beaches