Contractor Selected for Montauk Leg of FIMP

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company was awarded September 29 an $11.2 million contract to pump nearly a half million cubic yards of sand onto the beach in Montauk, officials said.

The work is scheduled to begin this fall after the Houston-based company completes another contract, both of which are part of the $1.7 billion Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point (FIMP) project building man-made dunes, beach berms and performing other work intended to mitigate storm damage.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials leading the project had said when FIMP kicked off on Fire Island two years ago — and after more than a half century of planning — that it would likely take a few years before work started on the East End.

Great Lakes will dredge 450,000 cubic yards from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off Napeague and build up the beach between the area known as the Benson Reservation on the west to just east of Surfside Place in time for the 2024 tourist season, Town of East Hampton officials said.

FIMP is funded by the $50 billion aid package enacted after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. New York State and local governments plan to share the cost of future beach renourishment projects slated every four years for the next 30 years, pending an agreement that has yet to be finalized.