An escarpment that was created by the forces of nature was finally smoothed out this week by man.
The escarpment, a drop-off in the sand that reached 5 feet at its highest point, had lingered on the beach strand between Oceanic and Fayetteville streets since early October. It was initially created by unusually high lunar tides and an offshore nor’easter in October, and remained in place after more unusually high tides and a strong storm hit just before Thanksgiving.
Public works staff began smoothing out the escarpment on Tuesday afternoon, using a front-end loader to scoop wet sand from the lower portion of the beach and dumping it onto the drop-off. The front-end loader then smoothed out the sand, making the drop-off more manageable for beachgoers to negotiate on foot.
The repair process is a new one for the town, requiring a permit from CAMA, which came through late last week. The permit process took longer than expected, delaying the start of repairs by a few weeks.
“We’re going to go out this afternoon and we’re going to see how our method works,” public works director Mike Vukelich said Tuesday.
Overnight, high tide washed away some of the sand that was used to even out the escarpment. However, public works staff continued repairing the escarpment Wednesday afternoon, at low tide.
Vukelich said Wednesday that he expected the repairs to take less than a day to complete, but added that there is a possibility that the sand used to make the repair may get washed away again. “We’ll keep monitoring and repairing it as we see fit,” he said.
