Town engineer James Geremia joined the Town Council via Zoom last week to describe the restoration plan for the south parking lot at Fred Benson Town Beach. The parking lot has experienced severe flooding ever since Orsted used the lot as a staging area for repairs made to its undersea cable that leads to its wind farm off Block Island’s coast. Orsted has agreed to cover the costs of the parking lot restoration project.Geremia told the council that he had dug some test holes and found that an eight-inch layer of silt and clay material was preventing the “percolation of storm water into the ground.”The eight-inch layer of material was brought in to “stabilize” the area while Orsted was working, and Geremia said it is now covered by four inches of sand. He said the town has a maintenance assent from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, which allows for the town to annually clear the parking lot of sand that blows in from the dunes.
Geremia told the council that the four inches of sand will be removed and returned to the dunes, which will expose the eight inches of silt and clay. This silt and
