SANDWICH – Town officials in Sandwich are moving ahead with plans for repairs to the damage caused at Town Neck Beach during the winter storm season, specifically the first March nor’easter.
Town Manager Bud Dunham provided an update to selectmen last week and said sand is being delivered to fill new holes in the dune and to replenish the two walkover areas from the parking lot.
Mat material will also be installed to help visitors get to the top of the walking paths to the beach.
“We found that when we had the mat material to go down people were slipping and it starts getting worse as the season goes on,” Dunham said. “We’re just going to try to get people to the top and then just a gentle slope down.”
Sand will also be sifted, reused and cleared from the parking lot.
“The parking lot, which is now filled with sand is going to be back down to the material that we had last year,” said Dunham.
That work was expected to be completed early this week.
Dunham’s office is also continuing to work on cost estimates and repair plans for the boardwalk which was heavily damaged.
“We are going to be working on better blocking off a couple areas of the boardwalk because despite what we have done, people are still walking out there even though there are sections that are completely gone,” Dunham said.
Earlier in the month, Dunham estimated the cost for short-term boardwalk fixes would be around $275,000 with long-term repairs to be well-over $1 million.
Dunham said work is also expected to begin soon on a grant funded project to install a swale ditch on the marsh side of the boardwalk parking lot.
“In a perfect world we will get that completed before the summer and that includes a full paving of the parking lot,” he said.
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