Dunes Prevented Severe Erosion at Stratford Point

The dune at Stratford Point before the storm. Photo by Twan Leenders/Copyright Connecticut Audubon Society.

November 2012 – When Hurricane Sandy hit, the dunes we constructed last year at Stratford Point to control erosion did their job, protecting the point from a storm surge that might have inundated an area extending well beyond our coastal restoration project.

Built of long, geo-textile tubes filled with sand and soil, and covered with more sand and soil, the dunes stretched for 900 feet along north cove and were designed to stabilize the point, the shoreline of which had receded by about 100 feet over the previous decade. Stratford Point covers about 40 acres – 28 upland and 12 intertidal.

The geo-textile tubes held fast and the point suffered virtually no erosion during Sandy – with one exception: the sand and soil that had covered the dunes themselves. To read more, click here …