My View of Life on the Dock
**caution: note any barriers! All are not cleared for use quite yet**
photos: One by one, Long Beach staircases back from winter storage. Rockport DPW delivering, installing, securing. April 2, 2025
photos: Long Beach April 5, 2024
photos: Long Beach status April 2, 2024 https://goodmorninggloucester.com/2024/04/02/long-beach-seawall-conditions-2024/
Photo series journaling the impact from the 2023-24 winter storms and tides. Much of the wall and walkway look great.
The packed soil walkway atop the Long Beach seawall shows a loss of 1″ to 6″ vertical height, scraped for stretches along most of the wall (and more than a foot high loss by the old hotel). There are new and old potholes and cracks in the concrete sections beneath the handrail, and a single rapidly enlarging sinkhole at the footbridge end which is ready for a caution cone or barrel.
pinch and zoom to enlarge; right click for description
There are a few repeat vulnerable spots that have not grown rapidly (unlike the one in the photo block above).
After a trio of March storms in 2018, the seawall pathway collapsed in two sections, revealing gaping chasms beneath (later filled). Fissures, cracks and seasonal pothole wear and tear were numerous. Thanks to immediate major repairs, the hollow underbelly sections were filled and packed down and the walkway widened pretty much the entire seawall. Rip rap boulders were shuffled into temporary pyres as extra wall support on the beach side.
photo caption: Same spot. Unlike the pathway which changed significantly, find the railing post to note the rough concrete chunk jutting out that has not changed.
Detail of the 2022 dislodged piece before/after
In 2019, hundreds of tons of boulders were added strategically, and later an impressive quantity of sand. Unsurprisingly the sand was devoured by tides and storms–even on the very day it was deposited, swept straight away. The rip rap–mostly unchanged–and new walkway have held.
Boulder pile 2019 still here 2024. The big rocks work.
Before the 2018 winter storm trio, people discussed the pros and cons about raising the height of the seawall, removing it, and so on. After the major upgrades in 2018 and 2019, a town committee was established to study future options for the Long Beach cottages and seawall which wrapped up March 2022.
The 2024 Rockport Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for April 6, 2024.
The detailed Long Beach seawall schematics from 2020 can be found here:
Rockport DPW does annual maintenance. I can’t find updated plans and diagrams about the scope of the proposed next phase of the Long Beach seawall project, but will add them here if I do. Based on the estimated 2.8M award reported in the FEMA press announcement May 4, 2023 to be combined with the town’s match of 1.3M, perhaps it was solely repair and maintenance, and spots that had not been addressed in 2018 and 2019. It’s a long seawall! The 2020 schematic labels 350 feet of wall from roughly #58-#70 as damaged. After the path was tamped down, the bowing was visible.
After this winter, there are new additions (e.g. the vertical loss on the path and that sinkhole). That 2023 press release described a deeper wall section slated for reinforcement, but it doesn’t indicate how long or diagram where. It describes new stairs on the Gloucester side relocated within Rockport. I believe that the replacement stairs installed after the 2018 storm damage were temporary (still standing).
Rockport DPW response is swift and sure. Other than the sand, the infrastructure repairs and maintenance are strong and steady and coordinated with state and federal assistance.
Photo blocks from Long Beach, Rockport & Gloucester, Ma.:
When it’s time it’s time. The lifeguard chairs, most of the stairs, and the footbridge are removed every year, and for this season it was at sunrise Sept 14. Rockport DPW is also on top of the storm prep ahead of this weekend’s Tropical Storm warning forecast. They work fast to beat the tides.
I saw this beach chair and thought perfect chair for Schooner Festival weekend. Imagine chairs on the boulevard printed with custom vessels (iconic racers and current ones). The smoke in the sky again from fires in Canada.
When the sea is black, the photo with the blue sky pockets and the clouds like waves–the last sequentially–was unexpected. Note the scale of the Long Beach cottages vs. clouds.
Long Beach, Nov. 10, 2022
This year, several of the stairs had to be dug out several feet for removal.
Sign of winter coming: Saratoga Creek footbridge severed access between Cape Hedge and Long Beach until spring returns.
Sand is covering the rip rap in November 2022, not as high as 2011, and deposited the entire stretch. Sand depth shifts on Long Beach. Read more here in an older post from 2017.
Seawall repair October 2022 Before | After
In 2018 Rockport widened much of the Long Beach seawall walkway beginning at the Gloucester side and stretching past the midpoint. Recently crews began extending this project straight through to the end point on the Rockport side. The work is expected to be completed in a couple of weeks.
Rocky explained it’s done in segments and moving right along.
Besides this big project, the getting ready for summer bustle is in full swing. Annual staircase return? Check! Front row cottage work? Check! New patio and masonry work by the former hotel (photos 2018 vs 2019 below) where the stone patio was compromised, various yardwork and private deck repairs are visible along the promenade.
Dog walkers and surfers crossed paths with Kevin and Gary from K & R Construction and Rockport Department of Public Works (DPW) on site setting up a new phase for Long Beach seawall repairs. Two roughly 500 feet lengths of rip rap extending out 15-18 feet (tapered) will be built up beginning just past the first stairs near red cottage 20 Long Beach. Sand will be added later as part of this phase. A steel road plate path was set in at the Gloucester Mass staging entrance so equipment won’t get stuck. Last year smaller forklifts and dump trucks shuttled boulders for patch rip rap.
Slow and steady– truck is LOADED (and another sets up straight away)
Photo journal documenting rapid damage and repairs post trio of winter storms as of May 2018.
is creeping back, truly. (view looking across to Gloucester side)
(sand migrating back- view looking to Rockport– see 2017 post about Long Beach annual shifting sands )
beach erosion was significant
Spring tides slam the Long Beach seawall.
photo: A tree tossed up like a toothpick atop the rip rap helps to illustrate the ocean’s twice daily whollops.
vulnerable spots clearly visible to the naked eye (I marked up two with red lines)
When the seawall opened up and heavy concrete sections balanced like hanging chads or individual playing cards, I was not surprised. The massive promenade had shown signs of strain. Small fissures and tiny holes were noticeable before the winter storms accelerated its decline. Water finds a way in at high tides. The manmade wall is noticeably shifting and rumbling at a greater pace. Holes, cracks and breaks along the seawall expand, and new ones erupt. I can’t help conjuring up comparisons to Yellowstone’s boiling and unpredictable surface. I imagine stakeholders are mapping details of their immediate landscape. Though beaten down, the promenade is walkable and sturdy. Tiny holes do expand rather alarmingly.
example –
and another (filled)- the cone eventually dropped beneath the path
Fissures
more photos (before-afters, repairs, boulder pyres, stairs or lack thereof, and nuisance popples) and videos of seawall ramparts giant boulder shuffle
Cape Ann Department of Public Works (DPW) have been at it clearing and repairing our coastal communities non-stop since three back to back winter storms. Both Gloucester and Rockport beaches are open for Memorial Day. According to the story, Cape Cod not so much.
Here’s the link to read the WGBH article and to listen to the story in case you missed it on the radio this morning Memorial Day is Here. Are Massachusetts Beaches Ready? WGBH story (article and radio) by reporter Maggie Penman (apt name for journalist :))
As with Manchester Singing and other North Shore beaches, the white or “dry” sand of Long Beach sings a musical sound as you scuff ahead. Lately though it’s whistling a shorter tune because there’s an astonishing loss of the dry grains.
Over the last 10 years, so much sand has been washed away from Long Beach most every high tide hits the seawall. Boogie boarders need to truncate their wave rides else risk landing on the rip-rap. It’s become a competitive sport to lay claim to some beach chair and towel real estate if you want a dry seat. On the plus side, low tide is great for beach soccer and tennis, long walks and runs. Bocce ball has replaced can jam and spikeball as the beach games of summer 2017.
Seasoned locals recall having to ‘trudge a mile’ across dry sand before hitting wet sand and water. In my research I’ve seen historic visuals that support their claims.
Historic photos and contemporary images –from 10 years ago– show a stretch of white sand like this one looking out from the Gloucester side of Long Beach to the Rockport side.
photocard showing the pedestrian walkway prior to the concrete boardwalk. Historic prints from ©Fredrik D. Bodin (1950-2015) show the damage after storm, 1931. See his GMG post and rodeo (ca. 1950)
After the Storm, Long Beach, 1931 Alice M. Curtis/©Fredrik D. Bodin (1950-2015) “Printed from the original 5×7 inch film negative in my darkroom. Image #88657-134 (Long Beach looking toward Rockport)”
This next vintage postcard flips the view: facing the Gloucester side of Long Beach –looking back to glacial rocks we can match out today, a tide line that shows wet and dry sands, and the monumental Edgecliffe Hotel which welcomed thousands of summer visitors thanks to a hopping casino. The white sand evident in front of the Edgecliffe bath houses (what is now Cape Ann Motor Inn) has plummeted since a 2012 February storm and vanished it seems, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not. It’s most evident where several feet of sand was cleaved off from the approach to the boardwalk.
I find the annual sand migration on Long Beach a fascinating natural mystery. It’s dramatic every year. Here are photos from this last year: fall (late Sept 2016), winter (December- sand covers rip-rap), spring (April -after winter storms with alarming loss), and summer (today)
FALL
WINTER
SPRING April rip-rap uncovered, exposed. Climbing to the boardwalk is an exciting challenge for two boys I know (when the sand is filled in like the December photo it’s a short drop)
SUMMER July 14 sand is coming back though all boulders are not entirely submerged
Storms (namely February) strip the silky soft top sand away and expose the boulders strengthening the seawall. It’s easy to feel alarmed that the beach is disappearing. By summer, the sand fills back, though not always in the same spot or same quantity. Some rip-rap expanses remain exposed. Most is re-buried beneath feet of returning sand. New summer landmarks are revealed. One year it was a ribbon of nuisance pebbles the entire length of beach. The past two years we’ve loved “the August Shelf”. (Will it come again?)
This year there’s a wishbone river.
In case you missed the Gloucester Daily Times article “Rockport Looks to Fix Long Beach Sea Wall” by Mary Markos, I’ve added the link here. They hope to finish by 2025. I look forward to learning more and reading about it. If extra sand is brought back will high tide continue to hit the seawall? (In the past it could hit the wall or blast over in storms, but dry sand remained lining the wall.) Will the new wall occupy the same general footprint? Will it be higher? Thicker?
Good Morning Gloucester 