Boaters Advised to Use Caution Traveling through the Charlestown Breachway

Published on Thursday, September 19, 2024

PROVIDENCE, RI – The Town of Charlestown and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) are advising boaters to use extra caution when passing through the Charlestown Breachway, or to avoid it completely. 

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 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.

Town officials, DEM, and the RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) are in collaboration to determine how to effectively repair the breachway.