EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Yorktown Public Beach is located on the south side of the York River in Yorktown, Virginia. It is part of a larger stretch of shoreline form the u.s. Post Office near the Coleman Bridge to Point of Rocks in the Colonial National Historical Park. In general, the shoreline is low but backeq. by high bluffs. Erosion of these bluffs over time has supplied material for the beaches along the York River. With hardening of the updrift shorelines, Yorktown Public Beach began to narrow and was easily overwashed in storms, flooding Water Street and jeopardizing the commercial establishments near the waterfront. Several coastal projects have taken place at Yorktown. A stone revetment was constructed along the shoreline in 1978. In 1986, a small breal<.Waterwas built to protect the storm sewer outfall pipe, and the beach was nourished with 10,000 cubic yards of sand. As erosive wave action continued to remove sand, the beach was replenished in 1989. However, a more permanent solution to the chronic erosion at Yorktown was needed. In 1994, York County installed an offshore breal<.Water system at the Public Beach. In addition, 11,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on the beach, and marsh grasses were planted in the lee of the structures. The purpose of this report is to assess the rates and patterns of change at the public beach as well as to assess the performance of the 1994 Yorktown Waterfront Shoreline Erosion Control project. Field survey data, aerial photos, wave climate analysis and computer modeling were analyzed for this report. RCPWAVE, a wave hydrodynamic model developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers and modified at VIMS, was used to model wave patterns. In general, sand moves from east to west along the Yorktown shoreline. However, during northwest storms, there can be a reverse in the littoral transport system. The net long-term change along the public beach shoreline was erosion until the installation of the breal<.Waters.Now the shoreline between the bathhouse and Comte de Grasse Street has been stabilized. However, because this shoreline is so low, overwash during storms is common. Even though the shoreline between the u.S. Post Office and the bathhouse is occasionally supplied sand by littoral drift during northwest storms, it has a severe erosion problem now that the sand that once supplied this stretch of shoreline is locked up by the breal<.Waters. Phase II of York County's shoreline plan for Yorktown is currently in the design stage. It should address erosion problems along the stretch of shoreline between the u.S. Post Office and the bathhouse. We also recommend raising the backshore region of the beach seaward of the sidewall<.in order to stop flooding of Water Street.
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