Posted on April 13, 2026
Stony Brook’s West Meadow Beach recently reopened, following three months of restorative dredging by Suffolk County’s Department of Public Works. The dredging process involves removing sediment built up into sandbars along coastal navigation trails and is regularly conducted along the North Shore for safety. According to DPW Deputy Commissioner Leslie Mitchel, the project’s main purpose was to unblock these trails for boaters, with the dredged sand being “placed along West Meadow Beach as an added beneficial result of the project.”
The work began in December 2025 and ran through early March 2026, lasting longer than normal due to the harsh winter storms and costing the county over $2 million. According to Suffolk County Legislator Steven Englebright (D, Setauket), who also acts as curator of geology at Stony Brook University, the need for dredging begins with scarping, or the natural coastal erosion of beach sand into steep slopes. Waves, especially during storms, create what he describes as “a vertical wall of sand,” with the eroded sediment built into offshore sandbars during the winter months.
The DPW moved the sand back using a hydraulic dredging method, with long cast-iron pipes stretched along the beach. These pipes measure a couple of feet in diameter each and utilize a pump to vacuum the sediment back to shore. The relocated sediment is then smoothed out using payloader trucks, returning the beach to its previous condition.
According to Englebright, it is important to perform the dredging during winter “because that’s not the biologically active season.” Local endangered species, like the piping plover, migrate to Central America during the cold months, then return in March, leaving “a reasonably narrow window.”
According to Mitchel, while the time between dredgings varies significantly, the DPW will decide on projects based on public benefit criteria and dialogues between the towns and the county. West Meadow Beach’s last dredging was in December 2017, also resulting in beach closure while payloaders redistributed sand along the beach. While the work results in temporarily transformed aesthetics for the beach, with large sediment mounds and tire tracks running along the sand, the area is returned to its regular appearance after.
“I think that the DPW has grappled with a pretty complicated project and done a pretty good job,” said Englebright. “They are working offshore with waves breaking against the barge and creating some turbulence that they have to deal with. So I tip my hat to them.”
