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City Seeks Bids to Rebuild Flood Protections in Oakwood Beach

By Nicholas Rizzi | December 28, 2012 7:02pm
 Parts of homes in Oakwood were washed into a marsh near Fox Beach Avenue after Hurricane Sandy. The city is seeking bids to reconstruct flood prevention berms in Oakwood Beach.
Parts of homes in Oakwood were washed into a marsh near Fox Beach Avenue after Hurricane Sandy. The city is seeking bids to reconstruct flood prevention berms in Oakwood Beach.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

OAKWOOD — The city wants to rebuild shoreline protections in Oakwood Beach to help prevent future flooding.

The Parks Department issued a request for proposals Thursday to reconstruct beach berms on the south end of Cedar Grove Beach Place in Great Kills Park, which were destroyed in a brush fire in 2009.

When rebuilt, the berms will help protect the shoreline and surrounding communities, which were heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy, from future flooding, according to the RFP.

In this year's budget, City Councilmen Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo allocated $500,000 to install a riprap — rocks tied together to armor shorelines — to replace the plastic bulkhead that mostly melted in the same 2009 brush fire, Oddo said.

The berm probably wouldn't have done much to help against the devastation of Sandy, Oddo said, but Oakwood Beach residents told Ignizio and Oddo the area flooded more often after the bulkheads were damaged.

"We were sitting on the porch with people who told us that they were getting tidal water for the first time," Oddo said.

The Parks Department does not have an estimate on how much the berm reconstruction will cost yet, a spokeswoman said, but Oddo said he was previously told the project would cost $500,000.

The RFP will close on Jan. 28, and the Parks Department said work can begin as early as June.