The Long Beach community along the south shore of Long Island, N.Y. like so many others, experienced beach erosion as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
The Army Corps’ New York District, together with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, is now in the process of increasing resiliency at the Coastal Storm Risk Reduction Project along the shore of Long Beach with the commencement of Phase 2 — an essential phase of the overall shore protection project.
Four million cubic yards of sand are currently being pumped on to beaches starting at the Town of Hempstead through Long Beach.
It’s not typical that placement of sand along the shore is being accomplished while people enjoy that same beach, but that is just what is happening during the Summer months in Long Beach, NY, reported the Corps.
The project is crucial in strengthening the beach’s resiliency and makes it more sustainable and reduces risks associated with severe storms. The project involves a 24 hour evolution of pumping 200 feet of beach each day.
USACE also added that working with the City of Long Beach to keep the beaches open and refrain from interrupting beachgoers, the Corps is performing the construction at certain sections at a time on different dates rather than closing the entire beach for the sand placement duration.
A portable pump is used to perform the sand placement where 2.4 million cubic yards ultimately will be pumped from off shore onto the beaches.
This involves using a dredge one mile offshore to perform the beach construction that involves a dredge that skims the sand from the bottom of the ocean from the borrow area and pumps sand onto the beaches. The borrow area is a designated area chosen to borrow sand and place it on the beach.