Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that the New York Department of Transportation has been awarded approximately $1,783,778 in federal funding to repair and upgrade the parkway at Orient Beach State Park. Superstorm Sandy heavily damaged the affected area, washing out 67,794 square feet of paved roadway and bike lane, 3,500 cubic yards of shoulders, communication lines and erosion control measures. The funds will restore the parkway to pre-storm design, capacity and function and provide for mitigation measures to reduce the impact of future storms and flooding.
“Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc along the parkway of Orient Beach State Park,” said Schumer. “These federal funds will ensure that local taxpayers are not on the hook for repairing this critical infrastructure. I am pleased to announce this necessary funding.”
“The parkway at Orient Beach State Park was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy and Long Island’s coastal communities suffered severe damage,” Gillibrand said. “This necessary funding is an important step as we continue to meet New York’s needs to recover and rebuild.”
Orient Beach State Park, is located on the northeastern tip of Long Island in Orient, New York. Superstorm Sandy damaged the 67,794 square feet of the asphalt-paved two-lane roadway and bike lane, 3,500 cubic yards of shoulders, 545 linear feet of gabion baskets, and 600 linear feet graded/compacted embankment with rip rap and communication lines located along the roadway. This work also includes hazard mitigation funding for work to prevent/reduce damages to this facility from future hurricane/flooding events. The permanent repair and hazard mitigation funding is being provided by FEMA under authority of Section 406 of the Stafford Act. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has legal responsibility for the Orient Beach State Park Parkway, which is a non-FHWA, two-lane paved roadway with a bike lane composed of compacted soil, gravel/cobble-type road base, and asphalt surfacing with shoulders. The parkway has embankments that consist of compacted soil, aggregate with rip rap and galvanized gabion baskets for slope reinforcements. The disaster also washed out a segment of communications lines for the pump house that were embedded along the roadway. Work to repair damages resulting from Hurricane Sandy include restoring approximately 67,794 SF of the roadway washed out, road shoulder consisting of approximately 3,500 CY of sand/gravel/cobble fill washed away or destroyed, approximately 600 linear feet of large erosion protection rip-rap displaced and or washed away, approximately 545 linear feet of galvanized gabion baskets damaged or destroyed, and also pump house communication lines destroyed.