Asharoken, state to study ways to repair deteriorating sea wall

The Asharoken Village Board has agreed to start a feasibility study for plans to repair the deteriorating sea wall along Asharoken Avenue.

Board members approved a resolution at its March 6 meeting to go forward with the study to be conducted by the state, Mayor Greg Letica said.

“The sea wall is in need of repair or replacement. It’s outlived its life expectancy,” Letica said of the 10-foot-tall wall, which was built in 1994 and stretches about 1,000 feet along the Long Island Sound. “It was not expected to last this long, and it’s at a point where it needs to be replaced.”

The rusting sea wall needs a permanent fix after years of deterioration, Letica said. In 2011, a damaged portion of the wall underwent a $2.2 million rehabilitation project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 2016, village residents rejected a proposal to restore a 2.4-mile section of the beach — including a small section in front of the sea wall — using federal funds because of a mandate to allow public access to private beaches.

The latest push to fix the sea wall comes after a 3-foot-deep sinkhole developed behind it last summer, which the village and the Huntington Town Highway Department temporarily repaired with 1,400 sandbags.

“It’s a combination of water coming over the wall, which is not ideal, and the sinkhole endangering the integrity of the sea wall in that area,” Letica said.

“We really are in a position where we don’t have much choice. We don’t want to lose this piece of infrastructure,” he said, pointing out that Asharoken Avenue is the only connection between mainland Huntington Town and Eatons Neck. “It’s the one thing standing between Long Island Sound and creating an island out of Eatons Neck. If there was not a sea wall there, you would necessitate a bridge of some kind.”

In January, Letica and Huntington Town Supervisor Chad Lupinacci sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation requesting the Army Corps of Engineers conduct a study and create a Locally Preferred Plan to permanently fix the sea wall.

“The Army Corps of Engineers has funded the project and we’re working along with the Village of Asharoken, and Federal and State officials to work out a plan to help remedy the situation for the residents,” Lupinacci said in an email statement.

A representative for the Army Corps of Engineers said the agency is reviewing the request.

Letica said the village administration hopes the Army Corps creates a focused plan that will avoid the controversies of the 2016 proposal. “The locally preferred plan is just to limit that restoration to the sea wall area,” he said. “It’s a smaller plan.”

“I’m very optimistic that we’re going to figure out a solution to the problem and I’m very optimistic we are going to get this done soon,” he added.