Earlier this week, the Civic Association met with the Army Corps of Engineers and NYS DEC for our monthly partner meeting.
To summarize, work for Phase 2 has begun in Long Beach with walkover pile driving already underway. We expect work to begin in Point Lookout in October with piling driving for the ADA compliant walkovers and the new pavilion taking place. That work is expected to take only a couple of weeks. Sand work has also begun on New York Avenue in Long Beach and will continue west through August. They expect Civic Beach sand work to occur in December and that work will take approximately a week. This is weather contingent as the dredge can only work when ocean conditions permit. Currently, the dredge is in Rockaway Inlet because of the rough surf conditions. Finishing work on the pavilion and walkovers will take place after the sand work is complete and all work is expected to be finished prior to the start of plover season.
When completed, the continuous dune will be approximately 14 feet high (similar in size to what we have now in Point Lookout) across the barrier island. The new pavilion will sit on top of the dune so those utilizing the structure will be able to see the ocean. We are still working on identifying the specifics of the walkovers, but we know we will have at the minimum the Garden City and Inwood Avenue walkovers.
Work on terminal groin 58 continues and has, for the most part, moved along smoothly. We are still looking at a mid to late September completion. For our residents that were unable to attend any of our Civic meetings, we wanted to answer the question we have been hearing over and over, why is the jetty work happening now in the middle of the summer? The short answer is there was a redesign of the jetty and it took a painfully long time. First was the work on the actual redesign. The design change was significant as Civic Beach was originally losing 22% or 23% of its waterfront; now we are losing about 8-10%, requiring complete re-engineering because of the topography of the ocean floor in that area. Because of the significant increase in cost, a federal appropriation review was required, which pushed off the start date from March till June. The jetty work needs to be completed prior to the sand work and the walkover pile driving. Since work is expected to take 3-4 months, any additional delay in jetty construction (due to the summer season) would have jeopardized the sand portion of the project.
At the meeting, we also discussed the current status of Lido Towers within the scope of the project. Lido Towers is private deeded property which does not currently offer public access to its waterfront area. The Corps has made it very clear it will not work in any area that will not provide public access after the project is completed. This is non-negotiable. Eminent domain discussions have not gone smoothly with the Towers, as unreasonable expectations were initially put forward by the Tower’s board. Conversations are once again progressing, but there is no telling what will ultimately happen. The Civic board has written Supervisor Gillen and Councilwoman King Sweeney to voice our support of an eminent domain process, as a continuous dune is in the best interest of the entire barrier island.
One final note, the DEC will be updating the community on a more regular basis via this DEC Page.
