$22.5M beach restoration plan moves forward

A $22.5 million beach restoration project in the Hamptons will begin in September and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year if all the permits are awarded.

The Town of Southampton on Tuesday night awarded the contracts for nourishment projects for the Bridgehampton and Sagaponack beach erosion control districts to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company. The Illinois-based operator was the low bidder on the project.

Property owners in the areas voted to tax themselves tens of thousands of dollars a year to pump sand from more than a mile offshore onto a 5.7-mile stretch of beach. It’s expected to double the width of the beach, to 1980s levels.

If necessary permits are not obtained in time, then the project would begin in November and end in March and cost about $100,000 more.

The project, which has been planned for years, became more urgent after superstorm Sandy.

Plans call for a total of more than 2 million cubic yards of sand to be pumped onto the beaches in the two districts — both the existing beaches and just below the shoreline.

“The overall goal of the project is to restore the beach to make up for the last 10 years of erosion and maintain that beach for another 10 years,” said Aram Terchunian, project manager and a coastal geologist with First Coastal Corp. in Westhampton Beach.