Nantucket advisory committee hears detailed Easy Street flood-mitigation update; design options, costs and outreach planned

Summary

Leah Hill told the Coastal Advisory Committee the Easy Street project now has three concept designs, AACE Class 4 cost ranges (example bulkhead ~ $47M), and work scoped through design and permitting; staff will complete additional modeling, FEMA benefit‑cost analysis and stakeholder outreach before recommending a preferred alternative.

Leah Hill, the town’s Coastal Resilience coordinator, briefed the Coastal Advisory Committee on Feb. 10 about the Easy Street flood-mitigation project and the next steps toward design and permitting. She said work funded under a CZM grant that concluded in June 2025 produced an existing-conditions and flood-risk assessment, three concept designs and a preliminary feasibility report.

Hill said the project team used the Massachusetts Coast Flood Risk Model (MCFRM) to map tidal flooding time horizons and has chosen a conservative design-flood elevation (8.0 ft NAVD88) for the most protective alternative “because this [is] critical infrastructure, we can’t get this wrong.” She described three concept alternatives — bulkhead expansion and elevation; an adaptable road-raising that would initially raise the road to about 6.5 ft NAVD88 with capacity for later adaptation to 8 ft; and a straight road-raising to 8 ft — and stressed tradeoffs between near-term cost and…

Nantucket advisory committee hears detailed Easy Street flood-mitigation update; design options, costs and outreach planned

Summary

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