Last night's ConCom meeting

Hey, a presentation on Newburyport's Beach Management Plan can be seen here. The Conservation Commission also had a hearing last night on the plan, which is a necessary part of this whole dredging/beach nourishment project.

Speaking of which, the public hearing on the dredging was also held last night, with only one resident present to listen and comment.

There were very few answers to the board's questions because the exact plans will be determined by the contractor, apparently.

• Nobody knows the specific type of machinery that will be used to place the pipe on the beach or in the nourishment project.
• Nobody knows exactly how much sand will be dredged, although the 160,000 cu yards is the target.
• Nobody knows what effect this pipe will have on the beach, vis a vis erosion, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does not think it will have any effect.
• Nobody knows the sequence - will Salisbury Beach be done first, or the PI beach?
• Nobody knows what the pipe will be made from and ...
• Nobody could say what would happen if the pipeline breaks or separates.
• Nobody could say what a contractor might do when a storm is forecast - except for get the barge the hell out of there.

What they could say:

• The window for the project(s) is Oct. 1 to March 14.
• There will be just the one barge for the whole project.
• A floating pipe will go from the dredging barge, over the jetty and then be connected to the pipe that will run down the beach to Newbury.
• The pipe will be 22-24" in diameter.
• The contractor will be "fairly well-known" because it will be an unrestricted bid.
• The dredging/nourishment operation will be 24/7.
• The whole thing will take about 2 months.

One thing I did notice, from the Beach Management Plan presentation: the only place on the Newburyport beach where there is an erosion problem is the one place where houses are not set well back from the dune. That would be at 55th St.

Nobody could say where the pipe will fit there or what effect it would have on the sandbags a resident had installed between his house and the beach to protect the house from the surf. According to the presentation, the beach there is only 90 ft. wide.