SANDWICH – With piping plovers and other native coastal birds beginning to nest along the shore, work crews are scrambling to finish work on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich.
The Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program gave the town 30 days beyond the March 31 cutoff day to plant beach grass and place signs to keep people off the newly re-nourished dune.
“We will be constructing a fence at the toe of the dune to keep folks off of the dune itself, because it’s planted with new beach grass and we need to protect that and obviously we need to protect the dune in general,” said Sandwich Natural Resources Director Mark Galkowski.
A qualified shorebird monitor, approved by the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, has to survey the area prior to the start of work, for the presence of any shore bird nests, scrapes or chicks within the work area.
Work began last week on rebuilding the two sets of stairs leading to the beach, but it will not interfere with the piping plover nesting areas.
“The fore beach was built out in front of the dune and the grass has been planted on the dune and the walkways are under construction currently,” said Galkowski.
Dune shaping work was recently completed on the beach with the 125,000 cubic yards of newly deposited sand from the Cape Cod Canal.
The Army Corps of Engineers donated the sand that they dredged from the canal, but the town paid the Corp’s subcontractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, $3 million to move and distribute the sand.
The town is expecting to receive up to $400,000 back from the company because the amount of sand placed onto the beach was not the 180,000 cubic yards the town was expecting.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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