Dredging of Fire Island channels ends next month

Channels for two Fire Island marinas located in the national park will be nearly twice as wide and deep once dredging concludes in late December, officials said Wednesday.

The project, which started Nov. 16, will widen the approaches to 100 feet and deepen them to 6 feet at mean low tide.

In some spots, their depth and width was just half that as superstorm Sandy and other storms deposited sand in them, the National Park Service said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The $2.9 million project, paid for with Sandy relief dollars, will make it easier and safer for boaters to use Sailors Haven and Watch Hill marina and docking facilities, the agency said.

"Visitors to Sailors Haven and Watch Hill rely on water-based access," park spokeswoman Elizabeth Rogers said by email.

"This dredge project will keep navigation channels from becoming too shallow and unsafe for ferries and private boaters to navigate," she added.

Last year, unusually cold winter weather forced the dredger, Bay Shore-based H&L Contracting, to halt work.

SEE PHOTOSSandy's destruction

About 90 percent of the dredged material from Sailors Haven will be placed on the shoreline just west of the marina, to help protect the Sunken Forest, the National Park Service said. The marina's eastern shoreline will receive the remaining 10 percent.

However, the sediment pumped from the marina is considered contaminated and will be travel by truck to a site that can handle it, the agency said.