Manhasset's Bayview Avenue, damaged by Superstorm Sandy, to be stabilized

The embankment that supports a heavily traveled road in Manhasset is finally being stabilized after sustaining structural erosion during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

North Hempstead Town's $944,000 project will help protect Bayview Avenue, which overlooks Manhasset Bay and is not structurally sound, officials said. The embankment was overwhelmed with water during the storm, resulting in the road starting to cave in.

Drivers from Manhasset and Port Washington regularly traverse Bayview Avenue to get to the Great Neck peninsula. Water sometimes pools after heavy rainfall, town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said. Bayview Avenue is about a mile long and stretches from Plandome Road to East Shore Road.

The revetment, which will reinforce the embankment, will consist of one layer of geotextile filter fabric, as well as three layers of stone. Kristin Seleski, commissioner of the town's Department of Public Works, said over email that stone is particularly useful because it "flexes slightly as soil settles and is a more natural solution."

About $300,000 for the work is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the rest being paid for by the town through bonding, town spokesman Umberto Mignardi said.

DeSena, who is from Manhasset and said she often drives on Bayview Avenue, said in an interview the project represents "a real, permanent solution" for the road.

"If there's any danger of it being eroded, we need to address it," DeSena said. "Not a Band-Aid. That's not just repair a crack. This is going to be a rebuilding of the embankment."

"This is considered a long-term fix, one that will allow us to repave the road in the future," Seleski said. "But it had to be done first because we wouldn’t want to run all the heavy equipment needed on a brand new road."

Henry Bokuniewicz, a distinguished service professor at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, said in an interview that revetment projects along shorelines can be an important bulwark against rising sea levels and the rising water table.

"During storms, if there is a very heavy rain, you can get flooding just by the water coming up out of the ground," Bokuniewicz said.

The work will last two to three months, officials said. The road will be closed to drivers during construction hours, DeSena said, but local homeowners will be permitted entry and exit. The temporary closures will be worth the end result, she added.

"I have driven on the road many, many times in my 25 years in Manhasset," DeSena said. "You have the water right there, and water can damage underneath the road. So we're going to do this the right way."

In July 2024, Baxter Estates received a nearly $8 million grant from New York State to help restore the shoreline along Shore Road, which is low to the ground and also borders Manhasset Bay. Shore Road frequently floods when it rains during high tide.

The Bayview Avenue endeavor is one of several infrastructure projects recently undertaken by the town to repair damage from Superstorm Sandy.

In October, North Hempstead received final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a $19.6 million makeover of Port Washington's town dock. The sea wall is damaged, and the work includes a newer and stronger bulkhead and other reinforcements.

On Dec. 9, the town board approved a $139,000 contract to work on the planned bulkhead replacement at North Hempstead Beach Park with Brookhaven-based L.K. McLean Associates Engineering & Surveying.

"These are long-stalled projects," DeSena said. "For many years, the easy things were handled, and the hard things were kicked down the road. Our team is focused on getting this job done, getting all of these difficult jobs done."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.