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Feds Won't Finish Rebuilding Rockaway Beach Until Next Year
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 14, 2013
Modified Feb 14, 2013
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 14, 2013
Modified Feb 14, 2013
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Hurricane Sandy destroyed a lot of things when she had her way with New York City (and the east coast)—especially the Rockaways. And while the Army Corps of Engineers say they are working on their plans to bring the beach back, it's going to take awhile. Like, months and months.
At a Community Board meeting this week Dan Falt of the Army Corps of Engineers explained that the storm washed away 1.5 million cubic yards of sand (enough to fill the Empire State Building!) but promised that they'll have it all back by next year. As for now though?
"Our task is to construct a restored beach to the original authorized design which is a beach sand and a beach berm plus 10 feet above sea level and at least 100 feet wide," Falt said. "We have to get environmental permits, we have to make sure that the dredge bar sites are clean and proper and appropriate. We have to do a federal contracted process which does take some time."
They should get started this summer though, when contractors will begin closing 1,000 feet stretches of the beach at a time for three-to-four days. The fun won't start until at least June, however, and will take between four to six months. And first they have to finish getting their plan for the project out for bids!
Meanwhile, as for further protection from future storms—think higher dunes—the Army Corps is mulling them. But for now the plan is to just get back what Rockaway lost first. Some local residents were unhappy with this approach. “I was expecting to hear more about protection and protection now, not a temporary fix, a band-aid,” Danny Ruscillo Jr., a Rockaway Park resident, tells the Daily News. “We are kind of sitting out there naked between now and June," said a Community Board rep. "One big storm could wash it all or at least half of it away.”
And another longtime resident told WNYC, "It feels like there's always a plan to make a plan to do a plan for study and then study the plan, and there's no action, and the action that they’re proposing is in the future, far off, temporary, and I feel like it’s a giant waste of the funds that are available."
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