By Mike Busch

For the last several weeks, heavy equipment, lights and dredge pipe have been placed at the east end of Davis Park, with the last stage of the Fire Island to Moriches Inlet dune and berm reconstruction about to begin.   The project is funded and designed by the Army Corps of Engineers with help from Suffolk County and the NYS Department of Environmental Protection.  This stretch of the project will rebuild the dune from starting from Davis Park and move west to include Water Island, Fire Island Pines, Cherry Grove, Point O’ Woods, and Ocean Bay Park.  This is the end of a long process that started after Hurricane Sandy.  Earlier in the year there were 23 homes demolished, 30 partially demolished and a number of homes moved back away from the beach in the 5 communities.

In Davis Park, there were 7 homes demolished and 5 partial demolitions.

The two houses below at the east end of Davis Park were some of the last homes moved back.

Week’s Marine, the same company that recently finished dredging Moriches Inlet has the dredging contract.  I took some photos of some of their equipment that is currently staged inside Moriches Inlet last Saturday.

A dredging pipe has already been positioned on the beach, leading 3000 feet into the ocean where they will attach to the dredging equipment that should be here any day.   Once two dredges arrive from another job, the 24 hour a day operation will start and move from east to west.  The beach will be closed in 1000 foot sections and they expect to be able to build between 100 and 200 feet of dune and berm per day.

You can watch the start of the project in real time on the Fireislandandbeyond.com Surf Cam once it starts.  You can see some of the equipment now when the camera pans to the east.  As the project moves west the Beach Cam will pick up the action.

Currently, the projected sand placement schedule is:

Davis Park – Late July through August

Water Island- Late August to early September

Fire Island Pines- Early September through mid October

Cherry Grove- Mid October to early November

Point O’ Woods – Late October to early November

Ocean Bay Park –  Early November to Late November

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