U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer yesterday celebrated the completion of Phase I of the Braddock Bay restoration project, and announced that the Phase II construction of the new barrier beach and boating navigation channel is moving full-steam ahead and will be finished by the end of this year.
The Senator secured $9.5 million in federal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) funds to make this project a realty.
In recent years, Braddock Bay’s barrier beach has been largely washed away and left open to Lake Ontario.
Without this much-needed barrier, the Bay had lost an estimated 100 acres of wetlands desperately needed for area ecosystems and sand pushed in from the lake has made it too shallow for most boaters.
With a more than 90 percent drop in activity since 2005, the local marina had been dealt a significant blow to its revenue stream and Bay-area property values have been threatened.
Phase I of the project, which is now complete, included restoring and creating wetlands habitat and removing invasive plants from the area to address the environmental concerns.
Phase II, set to be completed by the end of this calendar year, includes the dredging of the boat channel and the construction of a barrier to protect the bay from future damage.
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