Months after Sandy, damaged city beaches prepare for summer

Rockaways boardwalk damage (source: WIVB)
Rockaways boardwalk damage (source: WIVB)

With Memorial Day just around the corner, city workers are speeding to finish $270 million in post-Sandy repairs to get public beaches ready for their opening weekend, the New York Post reported.

“Reopening the beaches is a major focus for us every year, but Sandy just set the degree of difficulty beyond anything we’ve ever seen before,” Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner of the city Parks Department, told the Post.

For example, Rockaway Beach, which was notably devastated during the October storm, is getting new sand, rebuilt boardwalk sections and a new retaining wall.

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Coney Island is also getting new features, such as 18 comfort stations, which have restrooms and lockers.

In other city beach locations, unsound structures that sustained storm damage have been razed. [NYP]Zachary Kussin