We met with the Army Corps this past week at our monthly partner meeting. We also walked the beach with the Corps to talk about potential completion schedules, and to take a look at the new dune. The schedule of completion of different aspects of the project at Civic Beach is still quite fluid. At our Monday meeting, there was no commitment to have any of our crossovers completed by April 1, the start of plover season. We discussed a number of alternatives but emphasized that this was really not acceptable given that our beach has been in a state of construction for 2 out of the past 3 years. By Wednesday, Galvin Brothers, the subcontractor tasked with building the walkovers, had agreed to make the Garden City walkover a top priority. Barring any weather-related issues, they have committed to having our ADA compliant walkover opened by April 1st. This will include staircases on the western and eastern sides of the ramps. Long story short, the Corps removed our western staircase, adding an eastern staircase. We had a series of meetings “requesting” they add the staircase back in, which they finally agreed to in mid-January. As of now, the flagpole will be relocated directly south of the entrance at Garden City Avenue. Additionally, Galvin Brothers hopes to have a new walkway poured in the area of Inwood Avenue along with Mobi-mat access at that location by April 1.
That new dune that we have heard so much about has finally been completed at what was the site of the old Pavilion. We expect Great Lakes to do some additional minor work in our area, but the bulk of their dredging efforts have been completed at Civic Beach. They are expected to return the dredge to our barrier island in the coming weeks to complete some beach fill operations at Lido Towers and in some areas of Long Beach. Galvin Brothers who is responsible for much of the remaining work at our beach, also intends to backfill the dune cutouts at Inwood and Baldwin prior to April 1st, after they cut the piles and install the cross-bracing in the coming weeks. We have also requested additional backfilling in the area south of the new dune, and that is something the Corps is looking into. Our new dunes will grow to similar heights of our other existing dunes quite quickly especially after they are planted. We are hopeful that the new dune backbone will prevent an ocean breach like the community experienced during Sandy, which allowed the ocean to meet the bay on Freeport Avenue. All dunes will be a minimum of 14 feet and will gradually build to 17+ feet.
When completed, all of our walkovers will rise from a base flood elevation of about 10 feet to a base flood elevation of 17.5 feet, back down to a base flood elevation of 7 feet with approximately 3 feet of ramp elevation buried on the south side. To be ADA compliant, our ramps leading to the walkovers needed to be a minimum of 90 feet in length, not including any landings, which is why the ramps appear so long, but are simply within code.
To summarize, we expect to have the Garden City walkover along with the walkway by Inwood Avenue completed by April 1st. We anticipate work to begin in September to finish the Inwood Avenue walkover along with the new Pavilion and its walkover to middle beach. We also expect the beach will be left flat, with all piles of debris and sand removed prior to the start of plover season.
As always please let us know if there are any questions. We will continue to keep you updated as new information becomes available.
