The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on the Long Beach Island, N.Y., shore protection project, which incorporates seven miles of shoreline between East Rockaway Inlet and Jones Inlet in Nassau County just east of New York City. Construction is expected to take 4 years.

The area is subject to direct wave attack and flooding during major storms and hurricanes, causing damage to structures located along the barrier island. Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, devastated the Long Beach shoreline with a record-setting storm surge and wave heights, causing tens of millions of dollars in property damage, destroying the island’s infrastructure and washing away 294,000 cubic yards of sand that acted as a barrier.

Long Beach Police Sgt. Eric Creegen views damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Image credit: Andrea Booher/FEMA. When finished, the project will include new stone for jetties, rehabilitation of 17 existing groins and construction of 4 additional groins, 5 million cubic yards of sand fill and construction of dunes approximately 14 feet above sea level across the 7-mile-long stretch of shoreline. The shore enhancements—the initial construction costs of which are estimated at $230 million—focus on the south-facing beaches that abut the Atlantic Ocean. Coastal storm risks from the bay side of the island to the north are not addressed by the project.

While erosion is a problem, the most serious threat to the island is from high storm surges and waves, the Corps says. The current low, narrow beach could be overtopped, with direct damages to public and private property. "Beach nourishment" will be accomplished by using a dredge to pump sand from a borrow area a mile offshore.

The Corps says the ocean-side measures are estimated to provide protection against inundation from storm surges from a 100-year event, or one that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year. Hurricane Sandy was approximately a 180-year event. Had the protections been in place at the time, the shoreline enhancements still would have been overtopped, but the damages might have been less.