Army Corps Plumb Beach coastal storm risk reduction work to temporarily close beach and parking lot, bike lane will have detour

Published March 27, 2013

NEW YORK – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District will be completing the second and final Phase of coastal storm risk reduction work at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn along the Belt Parkway through most of the rest of the calendar year, which will lead to beach and parking lot closures as well as a bike lane detour.

The parking lot and beach will be closed for the duration of the work, which is expected to be completed before the end of December. The bike lane will be detoured during construction. The planned detour for the bike lane will be through part of the western half of the parking lot and will be connected to the existing bike path on both ends of the detour lane. The current plan is to allow the bike path to remain open, with the detour, during the entire construction period.

Phase II work involves the construction of two permanent stone groins at each end of the beach to help mitigate erosion in the long run. It also involves the construction of a permanent stone breakwater in the water off the severely eroded area parallel to the beach to mitigate future sand loss. The current contract also involves planting vegetation in sand dunes to help strengthen them as well as the installation of sand fencing to trap sand blowing landward. The work is being carried out by Village Dock, Inc., of Port Jefferson, N.Y., as part of a $2 million contract.

The groin and breakwater work is not expected to begin until July in order to comply with environmental restrictions. Other aspects of the work will begin in April, including site preparation, stockpiling stones, work preparing to plant vegetation in the sand dunes and immediately north of them to strengthen the dunes and the installation of the sand fencing to trap sand blowing landward.

Work is also beginning on the logistics of getting the necessary large stones to the site in order to begin work on the permanent stone groins and breakwater as soon as feasible later this year.

Even if there appears to be a gap in work between the work on vegetation planting and sand fencing construction and the work on the groin and breakwater construction – the beach and parking lot will remain closed so the contractor can continue to stay mobilized and store equipment and stones and so that the vegetation will have time to settle in the dunes undisturbed.

Phase I was completed in late 2012 and involved placing approximately 127,000 cubic yards of sand in the severely eroded Plumb Beach area along the Belt Parkway, a busy highway and a critical piece of the city’s infrastructure. The sand was placed just prior to Hurricane Sandy’s arrival and helped prevent serious damage to the Belt Parkway. Phase I also involved the installation of a temporary geotube groin structure to help mitigate the loss of Phase I sand until the completion of Phase II.

While Phase I provides immediate coastal storm risk reduction benefits to both the Belt Parkway and the frequently used bike path along it, Phase II is designed to keep the coastal storm risk reduction benefits in place longer by managing the movement of sand and greatly reducing the need for future renourishments at the project site.

The local cost-sharing sponsor for both phases of the project is the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation with 65 percent of funding being federal and 35 percent being local. Phase I was completed through a $3.5 million contract with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock based out of Oak Brook, Ill., and beneficially reused sand dredged from Ambrose Channel as part of ongoing efforts to deepen the navigation channels associated with the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The project includes work on National Park Service land. The Corps and New York City officials worked closely with the National Park Service during the planning of the project and the sand placement phase and will continue to do so during Phase II.


Contact
Chris Gardner
917-790-8007
christopher.p.gardner@usace.army.mil

Release no. 13-024