Photo by Katie McFaddedAfter the long, cold winter, many are ready for the beach season, but as Memorial Day weekend kicks off, the beaches are not quite ready for us. The lifeguards officially return this Saturday, May 24 as Rockaway kicks off another summer.
However, with Hurricane Sandy just a little more than a year and a half behind us, the beach is still far from back to normal. With fences still up, pipeline still lying on the sand, caution signs still posted and bulldozers still rolling around, signs of readiness are not quite apparent this weekend.
In the weeks leading up to the holiday weekend, the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Army Corps of Engineers worked around the clock to get the beach ready. Mayor Bill de Blasio and other officials are expected to attend an official beach opening ceremony on Friday, May 23 at Beach 86th Streetto announce that the beaches are open.
“Nearly all of Rockaway’s swimming beaches will be open on Memorial Day weekend,” a Parks Department spokesperson said.
Nevertheless, with construction going on and sand still in the process of being added to the beach, not every beach will be accessible to the public.
The beach is still in the process of being built. The Army Corps of Engineers and contractor Weeks Marine are still pumping sand onto the beaches, but some beaches that need it most won’t have the sand it needs in time for the holiday weekend. The beach around the Beach 90s, which has some of the smallest, most eroded beaches on the peninsula, was supposed to have sand pumped onto it before Memorial Day weekend, but due to a mechanical problem, the Army Corps had to change plans.
In Phase 2 of the sand replenishment project, the Army Corps was supposed to start at Beach 116th Streetand continue east to Beach 81st Street before flipping the pipe to pour sand from Beach 116th Street west to Beach 149th Street. However, just as the Army Corps reached Beach 97th Street, they ran into a glitch.
“We were working to close the gap in the area in the 90s, but we didn’t realize that the dredge’s pumps aren’t as strong as we hoped,” Army Corps project manager
Dan Falt said at a recent Belle Harbor Property Owner’s Association (BHPOA) meeting. “The flow rate slowed down and the sand and water mixture wasn’t getting the pressure it needed to continue to pump further east.”
Not wanting to risk the pipeline clogging or the pump engine overheating, the Army Corps stopped atBeach 97th Street.
To fix the problem, the Army Corps will be bringing in a bigger dredge from North Carolina, which is expected to arrive on May 30. Instead of wasting time as they wait for the new dredge, the Army Corps has flipped the pipe in the west direction and has been pumping sand uptown from Beach 116th Street, which wasn’t supposed to start until after the Beach 90s were filled. The Army Corps says it can get to aboutBeach 129th Street before they run into the same problem of not having enough pressure to continue further, but by that time, the larger dredge is expected to be filling the gap in the Beach 90s.
Despite slight delays due to the mechanical problem and poor weather, the Army Corps has made significant progress. Falt says they have placed more than 850,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach so far in Phase 2. Last summer, the Army Corps placed a total of 550,000 cubic yards. The Army Corps hopes it will be able to move even faster with the large dredge and will be able to close the gap in the Beach 90s over the course of a week and a half to two weeks. They will then continue to pump sand on the west end from Beach 129th Street to Beach 149th Street. Once that is complete, the Army Corps will have to wait until the piping plovers have moved on to finish the rest of Phase 2 between Beach 19th Street and the Beach 90s.
With the sand pumping continuing throughout the summer, some beaches are expected to be closed. The Army Corps says it closes 1,000 feet of beach at a time around the pumping area. For Memorial Day weekend, Falt says the pumping area will be in the Beach 120s.
In addition to the complaint that there is not enough sand in some areas, others have brought up the issue of there being too much sand on certain beaches. With protective dunes measuring around 16- feet high, some residents expressed concerns at the BHPOA meeting about how they will be able to access the beaches with such large obstacles in the way.
Parks Department First Deputy Commissioner Liam Kavanagh addressed this issue, saying sand ramps have been created over these dunes at certain access points. These sand ramps consist of smooth pathways over the large dunes as well as mats to walk on. Kavanagh says the ramps are on every block from Beach 126th Street to Beach 149th Street and others will be placed in parts of the beach where access points were located last summer in scattered areas. There will be around 70 sand ramps in total.
“We tried to choose areas that were most used last summer,” representatives from the Parks Department said.
Some residents expressed frustration over the fact that only certain beaches will have these easy-access pathways. Some had doubts about being able to get over the dunes, especially when it comes to the elderly, disabled or those carrying heavy wagons or items. But Kavanagh said that he is confident that with the sand ramps Parks and the Army Corps created, everyone will be able to access the beach this summer. It just might not be this weekend.
“We’re not going to have all of the mats in by the holiday weekend, but we will next week,” he said.
The Parks Department says it will post a list of the beach access points on its website, nyc.gov/parks. They also advise people to call 311 to find out where they can swim throughout the summer.
Kavanagh also spoke about the progress with the boardwalk. Phase 1 started in April with the installation of fences around the work site area, excavation and the removal of concrete pilings between Beach 86th Street and Beach 97th Street. As work in Phase 1 continues, Phase 2 work between Beach 97th Street and Beach 107th Street will begin starting in June. The Parks Department says that the boardwalk construction shouldn’t cause any beaches to close.
While the beach may not be ready just yet, businesses will be. With many opening last weekend, the boardwalk concessions are ready to go. Rippers will be on Beach 86th Street. Breezy’s BBQ, Citysticks, Lobster Joint, Uma’s and Rockaway Taco will be at Beach 97th Street this season and on Beach 106th Street is Caracas and Concho.
The weather is expected to be in the favor of those looking to get in some beach time. As of Thursday morning, the forecast for the weekend said low to mid-70’s throughout the holiday weekend, with Monday looking the best with 76 degrees and mostly sunny skies. However beachgoers might want to wait before taking a dip in the ocean. The water temperature is only 58 degrees.
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