ACCOMACK COUNTY, Va. -- Mother Nature has slowly but surely overtaken The public beach on the Virginia side of Assateague Island. So, the National Park Service is moving beach access 2.5 miles to the north.
The first phase of what should be a year-long project began on Tuesday.
Crews from the Air Force Reserve Red Hats kicked off construction work away from the beach, cutting down trees to make way for the road that will eventually take vacationers and Chincoteague locals to the new public access point.
"They will be rotating crews every two weeks from the Air Force Reserve; they'll be building the roads and the parking lots," said Hugh Hawthorne, Superintendent of Assateague Island National Seashore. "The fact that they're doing it saved a lot of money."
Chincoteague Town Manager Mike Tolbert told WBOC in 2015 that this project was estimated to cost $45 million. However, using military personnel to build the roads and new parking lots helped cut down on that price tag.
"Another thing they did was reduce the scope, and they reduced it considerably over what was initially planned in the 2015 master plan," said Tolbert.
The cuts brought the total cost to roughly $22 million. However, Chincoteague officials are worried about the reduced scope.
Tolbert said there is concern the new location won't provide the beach experience people have come to know and love.
"Electric power was removed, drinking water was removed, toilets, changing stations or changing rooms, showers, and I believe foul weather shelters were also removed from the scope," said Tolbert.
Setting aside the town's apprehension, Tolbert acknowledged the nature-based need to relocate public access.
"We understand that we're only one storm away from having no beach access at all, and in that respect, moving the beach to the North makes sense," said Tolbert.
To that point, Hawthorne noted the current location no longer works.
"The south end of the island where the beach currently is, is moving," said Hawthorne. "It's moving naturally and it's moving quickly and over the last 20 years it's moved so much that, that location is no longer feasible."
Hawthorne said the first phase of work is expected to wrap up around July 4th, 2025. Throughout this summer, people will still be able to access the current beach location.
The transition process won't begin until the winter or possibly even the spring of next year.