City officials broke ground on a $25 million project in Coney Island, designed to protect the area against future storms.
The program has been in the works for many years, but Hurricane Sandy provided the spark needed to get federal funding.
The Coney Island Shoreline Project spans a three mile stretch between West 37th Street and Brighton Beach.
The Army Corps of Engineers will be building jetties there to protect the area and prevent the kind of erosion that has plagued the shoreline for decades.
"They're basically stacked up rocks so we're putting about 100,000 tons of rock that are going to be shaped in the form of a T and a stem that comes down. It's about 250 feet wide by about 250 feet long," said Col. Paul Owens.
"We've been able to get sand replenished on this beach over and over again. When I became senator it was one of the projects I worked but the sand keeps washing away and we know we needed permanent structures," said Senator Charles Schumer.
The project is expected to be finished in the spring of 2016.