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Ocean Parkway Emergency Repairs Due To Super Storm Sandy

Ocean Parkway, originally created in the 1930s by hydraulically filling areas in the barrier island, sustained its most severe damage when the storm surge and high tide resulted in significant flooding, failure of the parkway pavement, and damage to the sand dunes and beach berms with some areas losing the dunes altogether. While erosion had not been a problem historically, big storms over the past 20 years had resulted in flooding, erosion of the dunes and the loss of sand required significant replenishment.

To facilitate community recovery, we developed plans to repair Ocean Parkway and the Robert Moses Causeway Fire Island Traffic Circle to pre-storm conditions. This included restoring damaged sections of road and median, repairing the shoulder and median guiderails, replacing signs, restoring pavement markings and lighting, removing debris, and restoring pedestrian underpasses.

Responding to the governor¡¯s call for us to ¡°build smarter,¡± we developed solutions to improve and fortify the protective barrier. We assessed scenarios to strengthen the dunes and supplement the sand-covered embankments so as to provide more protection. We evaluated a reinforced geo-tube or steel sheet pile wall with stone rip-rap armor for coastal barrier restoration.

Finally, we assisted in the permitting process with NYSDEC and the Army Corps of Engineers for the dredging of 2,600,000 cubic yards of sand from the Fire Island inlet. The sand was used to rebuild beach berms and dunes and the dune vegetation design provided greater stability and improved resilience to storms.