Beach repair to close section of Dune Road in Southampton Town

A portion of Dune Road east of the Ponquogue Bridge will be closed for several days next week as Suffolk County conducts emergency repairs to a dune damaged by the nor'easter.

The roughly 1-mile section of the road, which runs parallel to the ocean, will be closed from Monday through Thursday next week, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., for dune restoration activity, Southampton Town said in a notice. The road leads to the western side of Shinnecock Inlet.

The oceanfront on Dune Road was severely eroded by the weekend’s nor'easter, Southampton Town Emergency Management Administrator Ryan Murphy previously told Newsday.

Restoration work is being done by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, which will use 3,000 to 4,000 cubic yards of sand, county spokesperson Michael Martino said in a text.

The dune helps protect the Shinnecock Commercial Fishing Dock, which is just west of the inlet. The dock has 20 boat slips for commercial fishing vessels and a dock house, according to the town, which owns the facility.

“It's a critical piece of Southampton infrastructure. It's in the top three commercial fishing stations in the State of New York,” Murphy previously told Newsday.

Offshore wave heights on the shoreline peaked at 19 feet, Aram Terchunian, a Westhampton Beach coastal geologist, told Newsday this week.