The Squibnocket Causeway and Beach Restoration Projects: Managed Retreat and Restoration of Coastal Beach

The Squibnocket Causeway and Beach Restoration projects (the “Projects”) located in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, were two independent projects constructed as a public–private partnership. The projects focused on environmentally responsible managed retreat and were critical in addressing threats from sea level rise and increasing storm intensity. To protect the only access to their 16 private homes, located in the Town of Chilmark along the southwestern coastline of the island known as Martha’s Vineyard, the Squibnocket Farm Homeowner’s Association (“SFHA”) decided to proactively relocate a portion of their existing roadway and utilities, which were repeatedly being compromised by storms, further in-land and at a higher elevation. The solution was a privately funded 107 m (352 ft) long, single vehicle lane, pile-supported causeway designed to account for future sea level rise and coastal erosion. The Town of Chilmark (“Chilmark”), when presented with the SFHA’s plans for the causeway, recognized the opportunity to remove an existing beach parking lot, approximately 143 m (470 ft) of stone revetment adjacent to it and re-establish the coastal beach. The stone revetment was causing increased erosion of the beach especially at both ends of the revetment, as well as inhibiting the natural migration of sand and sediment along the beach. Following the removal of the revetment, the coastal beach was renourished to its natural state by placement of sand from an adjacent dredging project. A new parking lot was constructed further in-land at a higher elevation. This paper will mainly focus on permitting and design of the Squibnocket Causeway project but will also explain the interdependency of the two projects.