Posted on January 5, 2026
CHARLESTOWN — The Charlestown Breachway Restoration Project continues to progress smoothly, with crews having already rebuilt hundreds of feet of the damaged structure, and preparing for the dredging portion to begin in January.
The crews have made a significant amount of progress in restoring the damaged section of the West Jetty, with approximately 385 feet of it being reconstructed utilizing new core stones, bedding material, and large armor stones that have been placed with GPS-guided precision. In total, more than 5,500 tons of rock have already been placed down. Charlestown GIS Coordinator Stephen McCandless, who has been spearheading this project long before day one, is on site at least once a day overseeing the operations of the construction, and notes that the rebuilt section of the West Jetty is holding up exceptionally well against early winter tides and wave conditions.
During the first month of construction, the contractors had fully completed the mobilization of all necessary equipment and materials and established a secure and fully operational staging area at Blue Shutters Beach. For the general safety of the public, signage and fencing are currently installed around the construction zone and staging area to separate the workspace from accessible areas. So far there have been no reported incidents for either the public or workers.
“The crew is moving really fast. The total rough number is going to be somewhere around 14,000 tons of rock that we’re going to end up putting in place,” McCandless said. “We have a new section that we’re building that’s about 540 feet (linear), and at this point we have around 900 tons of rock that has been delivered to Blue Shutters Beach for that section. Of that 900 tons, we have about 600 to 700 tons already in place.”
Additionally, the toe stones (the outer stones on the water side) have all been placed from the emergency repair that was done in October of 2024 when the West Jetty originally broke, all the way down to Elbow Beach. A majority of the core stones have been placed behind the toe stones, and have been elevated to roughly three feet. The outermost layer, the armor stones, has been brought up to about six feet, and now work is shifting to the inner part and working with sand to make sure both sides of the structure are secured firmly, while the inner core gets completed as workers progress down the beach.
The Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC), Department of Environmental Management (DEM), and the town of Charlestown continue to work closely together in this, holding daily safety meetings, tide and weather planning, and other coordination efforts to guide all operations. Winter surf, shifting beach profiles, and other natural coastal processes are being closely monitored, and crews have been adjusting as needed to ensure safety and continued efficient progress.
The dredging part of the project is already shaping up, as the J.F. Brennan Company, the contractor selected for the dredging operation, arrived on Dec. 8 to begin the mobilization of dredge equipment and pipeline components. Mobilization was about 90% completed, and J.F. Brennan vacated the site for the observation of the holidays, while the rock crew took Christmas Day off and will continue building up the core until they return.
It should be noted that J.F. Brennan has been contracted to complete dredging work in the past, especially in Ninigret Pond, and they have been a reliable help for the town.
“The rock crew is going to get the inner section of the wall all established and that core brought up to seven feet, all the way back into Elbow Beach, and that way we have a place to put the sand when the dredge company comes back,” McCandless said. “When the dredge company comes back and starts mobilizing to the other side, we hope to have all of the rock work up to an elevation of six to seven feet so that the dredge company can pump the sand into that area.”
McCandless also reiterated how smoothly the project has been moving along, and that further contingencies have already been planned for, such as machinery slowing down in the winter time, and has reported that nothing has necessarily been ‘holding up the project’. This is also true for any equipment malfunctions, storms, high tides, that have already been incorporated into the timeline of construction. He also noted that if anything, they are ahead of schedule due to favorable weather.
A common public misconception that McCandless pointed out was people visiting the breachway during the day, and not seeing crews working out on the beach. He explained how there were days during high-tide in which work could not be done for the safety of the workers, and that the crews would return later and work throughout the night instead, when it was low tide and much safer and easier for work to be done.
J.F. Brennan is slated to return on Monday, when they will finish the last 10% of mobilization, and a day or two after, the dredging operation will officially begin, and it is anticipated that it will take around 15 days to finish. While the dredging operation is in effect, the state campground portion of the breachway will be serving as the main access point for dredge preparation, and public access in that specific area will be limited.
By the end of February, the site is planned to be fully demobilized, and from there the sand recovered from the dredging portion of the project will be used to support beach nourishment as well as dune restoration.
