ORLEANS – Work continues on a project to replenish the dune at Nauset Beach in Orleans.
Residents approved $1.1 million in funding at town meeting to build up the dune between the ocean and the parking lot.
Department of Public Works crews began working in mid-December by tearing up part of the parking lot which will lose 250 spots.
A total of 32,000 cubic yards of sand will be used to replenish the dune.
“Right now the schedule is about 60 tractor trailer loads per day of sand is coming in to build basically a dune behind the dune,” said Tom Daley, the town’s DPW and Natural Resources Director.
Daley said the goal of the project is to buy time for the beach which lost 80 feet last year due to erosion.
A new courtyard area will also be placed about three-quarters of the way down the parking lot with picnic tables, first aid and administration structures, portable toilets, and food trucks.
“This all assumes that the existing beach administration building with the bathrooms doesn’t make it through the season,” Daley said.
“We are hoping it does.”
The structure is currently less than 10 feet away from the ocean.
“If I was a betting it man it will most likely not, but we are hoping it does,” Daley said.
If the building does remain after the winter storm season it will be used for the summer season and there will not be a need for portable toilets.
The new dune will be about 150 feet in width and about 9 feet high.
The lot will be trimmed from about 900 parking spaced down to 650.
The town has used an old motel property for overflow parking the last few years which holds about 230 spaces.
“What it will do is just make us use our overflow parking more often,” Daley said.
The dune restoration is expected to be completed by the end of March, with all other changes to be ready for the summer season.
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