$17 Million Rehabilitation Of Winthrop Beach Breaks Ground

WINTHROP (CBS) - After being beaten by storms for decades, repairs are being made to Winthrop Beach to make it a destination for families.

Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Ed Lambert says the four-part, $17 million rehabilitation project will add lighting, benches, repair the rock wall and bring more sand to the beach.

Lambert joined Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Robert DeLeo in the ground breaking Thursday morning.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports

"There's been significant erosion over the course of decades and that has created some potential safety issues for residents and their property when we have some violent New England storms that we have, and it's also degraded the resource and we want to bring that back," Lambert said.

Sand will be trucked to Winthrop Beach from Rumney Marsh in Saugus.

The project grew out of the "Back to the Beaches" program aiming to improve Boston Harbor area beaches.