The Beach Erosion Board carefully considered the report of the 

 Division Engineer. It concurred generally in his conclusions and 

 recommendations . 



The beach under study is protected from the dominant storm waves 

 by Nahant, Little Nahant and the tombolos connecting them to each 

 other and to the mainland. The publicly owned portion, the Metropolitan 

 District Commission Reservation, has not yet suffered severe storm 

 damages, although the highway is occasionally washed over. The recent 

 history of the beach of the Reservation indicates a greater amount of 

 erosion than accretion and interference with recreational use of the 

 beach by exposure of increasing numbers of stones on the backshore 

 areas. Continued erosion will endanger many structures, but, since the 

 rate of erosion is relatively low, only a small portion of the exist- 

 ing structures are in imminent danger. The natural rate of supply of 

 beach material is insufficient to permit its entrapment to create a 

 stable beach of satisfactory composition. The Board therefore con- 

 curred in the plan of the Division Engineer to provide protection and 

 improvement of the beach by artificial placement of sand fill. The 

 improved wider beach will provide more effective shore protection. 

 Furthermore, as the backshore beach areas are stony and unsatisfactory 

 for recreational use, the recommended wider and improved beach will 

 provide, in addition to other benefits, very large recreational 

 benefits which provide economic justification for the -work. The 

 Board concurred in the opinion of the Division Engineer that pro- 

 spective benefits warrant the proposed expenditure for an improved 

 protective beach. 



The Board noted that the volume of sand necessary to maintain 

 the artificial fill in its original condition was estimated by the 

 Division Engineer at 5 S 000 cubic yards per year. The Board believed 

 that this figure will be found to be too small in practice and there- 

 fore that the cost of maintenance will probably be somewhat higher 

 than estimated in the report. However, it is apparent that no reason- 

 able increase of maintenance cost from this cause will appreciably 

 disturb the present economic justification. 



In accordance with existing statutory requirenents, the Board 

 stated its opinion thatj 



a. It Is advisable for the United States to adopt a pro- 

 ject authorizing Federal participation in the cost of protecting and 

 improving the public ly-owned shore of the Metropolitan District 

 Commission Revere Beach Reservation, Massachusetts; 



b. The public interest involved in the proposed measures 

 for the publicly owned shores is substantial. It is associated 

 with prevention of direct damages to public property, increased tax 

 revenue resulting from increased earning power of adjacent property, 



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