Duxbury has a town meeting scheduled for March 9th. Among the topics being voted on are seawall repair funding. The original seawall went up in the 1950s. I grew up in the beach neighborhood, and have witnessed the deterioration of the seawall
Duxbury has slacked on seawall maintenance, and the chickens came home to roost about a year ago this week. A nor'easter smashed large sections of the wall into the sea. While the storm was powerful, the collapse was more attrition than anything else.
Since that storm, Duxbury has only performed emergency repairs to the wall. Estimated costs for repairs are in the $5 million range, while a replacement might run four times that.
Funding is available, as the town is sitting on a million dollar state grant and two million in low interest loan financing. FEMA will cover 75% of replacement costs.
Duxbury Beach has perhaps the worst coastal flooding situation in Massachusetts. It is a narrow strip of sand set between a bay and the ocean. It breaches frequently where dunes are the only protection, and requires constant restoration. During storms, much of it is inundated.
Without the sand repletion, the entire beach would wash over. It may take a generation, or it could happen with one big storm. It can and will go from being a barrier beach to a sand bar very quickly if it is not maintained. The Powder Point Bridge will become a pier sticking out into open ocean.
Duxbury fares better where the seawall is. This present seawall, shoddily constructed without rebar technology that was used in Constantinople, survived the Blizzard of '78, the Perfect Storm, several hurricanes and an annual parade of nor'easters and gales without any maintenance at all.
Duxbury has a lot of expensive real estate fronting Duxbury Bay. They currently don't get direct ocean surf.
If the seawall is left to fall into the sea, the north end of the beach is unprotected. If that end of the beach washes away, you can't do customary repairs on the south end of the beach, as the convoys of replacement sand trucks can't go over the Powder Point Bridge (nor can emergency vehicles). Beach erosion would spiral out of control.
Thus are barrier beaches lost.
In the long run, it is better to spend a little now than a lot later. Duxbury can laugh off the loss of 200 beach houses, although that laugh will cost about $2 million a year in lost tax revenue.
What they can't laugh off is direct ocean surf hitting the Powder Point, Washington Street and Standish Shores neighborhoods. That scene in the picture above with the waves hitting the houses could be happening to the King Caesar House.
Those are the stakes if the barrier beach is compromised. The whole Alden school complex would also be threatened. Potential losses are incalculable.
You either maintain the seawall on a straight-line barrier beach, or you have to build one, one millionaire yard at a time, along every nook and cranny of Duxbury's present bayfront shoreline. The third choice is "Duxbury gradually erodes into the sea." There is no fourth choice.
Vote to protect Duxbury with a seawall.
No comments:
Post a Comment