In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the restoration project for Brooklyn’s Plumb Beach is a now model for what can be done to better protect the city’s shoreline. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

Traveling over sand and climbing on rocks, an excavator is being used to help protect the city’s shoreline against future storms on Brooklyn’s Plumb Beach.

Though a stretch of just three miles, Plumb Beach is a waterfront just steps from the Belt Parkway and less than a half mile from residential neighborhoods.

“Over the last few years, this area had been identified, subsequent to a nor’easter in 2009, as one of the most vulnerable areas in the entire city of New York,” said Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

The Army Corps of Engineers started the beach restoration project before Hurricane Sandy and completed phase one, which included replenishing hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand just days before Hurricane Sandy struck.

“It’s really the sand replenishment, having the sand in place that during Sandy protected the Belt Parkway,” said Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey.

“We came out right after the storm, and we physically did an assessment, and the project worked,” said John Knight from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Now, the second phase is underway.

Stone groins are being built on both the eastern and western sides of the beach.

“The eastern groin right there acts as a catch for sand movement along the beach, keeps the sand and the protection in place on the shoreline itself,” Knight said.

Plumb Beach is partly federal land, falling within the Gateway National Recreation Area, and partly city parkland. The project is being funded by both.

Sixty-five percent of the money is coming from the federal government, and the rest is coming from the city.

Officials say the work here needs to be replicated in Sandy-devastated areas.

“This was a success story. It’s a wonderful model for the type of work that we must do,” Jeffries said.

“It’s going to allow us to do this very similar work in the Rockaways, which we already started with 4 million cubic yards of sand that will be laid there, and very shortly after that, right here in Brooklyn’s Coney Island,” Jeffrey said.

The Plumb Beach project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.