PLUM ISLAND — A plan to renourish the beach at Plum Island and Salisbury won approval on two fronts Tuesday evening, moving the project another step closer to fruition.
Conservation commissions in Newbury and Newburyport both approved the proposal, sponsored by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, to dredge the Merrimack River channel and deposit the recovered sand directly onto the beaches.
The commissions also approved beach management plans for their respective communities, which were required for the work to proceed. Salisbury had already adopted a management plan for its DCR-owned beach.
The dredging is expected to yield 160,000 cubic yards of sand, 120,000 for Newbury's beach on Plum Island and 40,000 for Salisbury Beach.
Newburyport will not be receiving any of the dredged material, but the city's approval is needed because a pipeline carrying the sand to Newbury will run across Newburyport's section of Plum Island beach.
Newburyport Conservation Agent Mary Reilly said the commissioners want the pipeline closely monitored during the project.
Work is tentatively due to start late this year and be completed by March.
On the island, the sand is expected to allow a buildup of the primary dune to a width of 20 to 50 feet and the beach itself to a width of 40 to 60 feet.
The sand will be deposited from Plum Island Center northward to about 29th Street.
The Army Corps of Engineers estimates the benefits of the beach buildup will last about five years. An Army Corps report issued early this year predicted that without remedial action as many as 26 homes and part of Northern Boulevard could be lost to erosion by 2019.
The dredging of the channel is expected to cost $2.1 million, all of which would be covered by federal funds.
The cost of on-shore deposit of the sand is estimated at another $2 million, 65 percent of which — $1.3 million — will also be paid by the federal government.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns all of Salisbury Beach and the Newburyport section of the Plum Island beach, will kick in 75 percent of the remaining $700,000. DCR's share works out to $525,000.
Salisbury and Newbury will share the final $175,000 piece of the project.
Newbury will pay 75 percent, which works out to $131,250, leaving Salisbury to come up with $43,750.
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