The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management is advising boaters to use caution when passing through the Charlestown Breachway after storm damage caused a crack in the wall.
The DEM said the breach is currently two to three feet deep at low tide, and sediment is being pulled from the channel by the force of the current.
The rock wall had deteriorated due to repeated strong winter storms, most recently in 2023, the DEM said. The town and the Department of Environmental Management are working together to repair the breachway.
“Due to storm damage over the years, most recently from the succession of very strong winter storms in 2023, one of the breachway’s rock walls has deteriorated, allowing water to pull sand in front of the breachway and into the channel,” the DEM said in a statement. “The buildup of sediment has raised the channel’s floor, leaving it at two to three feet deep at low tide, making it difficult for boaters to avoid getting beached or hitting rocks.”
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
