Nor’easters in March ravaged stretch of Montauk beach
Sandbags are exposed in front of the Montauk Blue Hotel, seen on March 7, after a storm erodes a stretch of Montauk shore. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
Work began this week to rebuild the beach along the Montauk shore and spread 30,000 cubic yards of sand atop a storm-damaged artificial dune, East Hampton Town officials said.
The March nor’easters that hit Long Island battered the artificial dune, exposing a half-mile-long stretch of sandbags buried by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2015 to combat erosion along the beach. The town is responsible for maintenance of the project and must have the beach replenished by May 15, according to its agreement with the Army Corps.
“We need to take steps to ensure our beaches are open for business come this season,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said during last Tuesday’s town board work session.
The work is expected to cost more than $850,000, up from an earlier estimate of $300,000. The supervisor said town officials have discussed the possibility of creating a special taxing district, also known as an erosion control district, to fund the work in the future.
“This is a significant expense to the town and it’s not one that I think we anticipated based on Army Corps projections,” Van Scoyoc said. “And I don’t think it’s one that we would be able to sustain long term.”
The beach will be covered with a mix of 80 percent quarried sand, which has an orange hue, topped with 20 percent white sand, Van Scoyoc said. The work is being done by Patrick Bistrian Jr. Inc. of East Hampton.
Town officials have said the sandbag project is an interim measure until the Army Corps performs a broader reconstruction of the beach as part of its $1 billion Fire Island to Montauk Reformulation Study.
Consultants earlier this year presented a study to the town that calls for a move inland of some of Montauk’s waterfront businesses over concerns about rising sea levels and erosion. Consultants are expected to present more information later this month or in early May on bringing that plan to action.
The town must adapt to sea level rise and an increase in severe storms to protect its beaches, which are the town’s economic engine, Van Scoyoc said.
“This all goes into really the one big picture . . . the impacts of a changing world,” he said.
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
