Eric Rosina, project manager for ACT Engineering, the consulting firm overseeing the city’s dredging program, explains details of the projects to the audience.
By Donald Wittkowski
Ocean City is only a few weeks away from launching an ambitious dredging program that will finally begin to unclog a series of lagoons so shallow that boats often scrape bottom or are trapped at the docks.
While some boat owners are relieved that their lagoons will be deepened this year, others remain frustrated that they will have to wait longer for the dredging work to move to their neighborhood.
The good news-bad news scenario was part of two town meetings Saturday called by Mayor Jay Gillian to update residents on the first projects that are part of his multi-year, $20 million plan to dredge lagoons and channels along the city’s entire bayfront.
“It’s been a long, painstaking process, but we’re finally making progress,” Gillian said in an interview.
Gillian warned that property values could decline, taxes could go up and the marinas and other bayfront businesses could disappear if the city did not embark on such an extensive dredging program.
“The bay is just as important as the ocean and we have to treat it that way,” he said.
For 2016, the city will focus on dredging three areas that are choked by muddy sediment. They include Snug Harbor, Glen Cove and South Harbor.
Trident Marine Piling Co., the dredging contractor, plans to begin work on Snug Harbor and Glen Cove after Labor Day and finish the projects by Oct. 1, the date that the city’s environmental permit expires for those projects. However, the city already plans to seek an extension of the permit to December from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Snug Harbor, between Eighth and Ninth streets along Bay Avenue, was partially dredged last year by another contractor. Trident will deepen the center of the channel in Snug Harbor to finish the job.
Like Snug Harbor, Glen Cove, between 10th and 11th streets along Bay Avenue, has been clogged by sediment buildup over the years. Boaters complained that the lagoon is so shallow they are often stuck at their slips, particularly during low tide.
“You can’t get in and out. There’s a lot of mud,” said Glen Cove resident Tina Rothstein.
“Occasionally, people can get in and out, but they also get stuck,” added Rothstein’s husband, Ed.
After Snug Harbor and Glen Cove are done, Trident will begin dredging the entrance to South Harbor, a bayfront area between Tennessee Avenue and Spruce Road. The city’s environmental permit for South Harbor’s dredging runs until December, giving Trident more time to complete the work.
ACT Engineering, the consulting firm hired by the city to oversee the dredging program, plans to seek a whole new set of state and federal environmental permits to dredge the entire bayfront from “tip to tip.”
Residents attended two town meetings Saturday at the Howard S. Stainton Senior Center called by Mayor Jay Gillian to update them on the dredging plans.
Residents will be able to piggyback on the city’s permit to dredge their own boat slips. The city is not requiring residents to dredge their slips, so it will be an individual choice by the property owners, said Eric Rosina, project manager for ACT Engineering.
Joe Stewart, owner of Trident Marine, said his company has already dredged some of the private boat slips at Snug Harbor. He estimated it would typically cost property owners in Snug Harbor and Glen Cove between $5,000 and $10,000 for slip dredging, depending on the extent of the work. The cost for dredging slips in South Harbor would likely be “significantly higher” because bayfront properties there are larger, Stewart said.
While Snug Harbor, Glen Cove and South Harbor are all scheduled for dredging this year, the residents of another bayfront neighborhood are unhappy that they will have to wait at least until 2017.
The Nor’easter area along Bay Avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets is considered one of the most badly clogged areas. But currently, there is no permit to allow dredging there, ACT Engineering officials told residents Saturday.
“We know Nor’easter is significantly impacted and that you have major issues there,” said Carol Beske, ACT’s project principal.
Beske and Rosina assured the Nor’easter residents that their area remains a high priority for dredging and likely would be among the projects recommended for 2017. The Nor’easter area will be included in the new dredging permit the city intends to obtain for the entire bayfront, Beske and Rosina said.
However, residents of the Nor’easter neighborhood claimed that their mud-choked bayfront is the worst in the entire city. They said they need help now.
“We’re still sitting here high and dry,” said Jim Sabetta, a resident of Pleasure Avenue and a former mayor of Paulsboro, N.J.
Sabetta and other residents complained that they have to rent boat slips in waterfront locations outside of Ocean City because the Nor’easter area is too shallow for their vessels. They also expressed fear that their property values are falling because of the clogged bayfront.
The process for removing the soup-like sediment from the lagoons and channels is both tedious and expensive.
Previously, the mayor estimated that about 1 million cubic yards of silt must be dredged from the bayfront, the equivalent of 15 football stadiums filled with muck and mire. On Saturday, Rosina said at least 700,000 to 800,000 cubic yards of dredge material must be extracted.
In order to undertake a long-term strategy for unclogging the lagoons, the city must empty out a disposal site where the dredge spoils are stored temporarily before they are hauled off by trucks to a Wildwood landfill.
Known as Site 83, the disposal area near the 34th Street Bridge can hold about 300,000 cubic yards of dredge material. Construction is underway on a temporary road that will allow more trucks to serve the disposal site, speeding up the removal of dredge spoils to the Wildwood landfill. The temporary road is expected to open by the end of August.
Site 83 will be the centerpiece of the city’s dredging projects beginning in 2017. A much-smaller disposal site underneath the Ninth Street Bridge-Route 52 Causeway will handle dredge spoils this year.
ACT Engineering officials noted that the state and federal environmental permits for the temporary road at Site 83 are scheduled to expire next June, so the city will have to seek an extension to continue using the roadway throughout 2017 and beyond.
“We hope that … will be a permanent asset some day,” Beske said of the city’s plans to seek approval for the temporary road’s long-term use.
The mayor explained that deeper lagoons will help the city in its efforts to improve drainage in flood-prone neighborhoods. Dredging, drainage and roadway projects are among the big-ticket items in the city’s five-year, $98.5 million capital plan proposed by Gillian.
For dredging projects, the city plans to spend $10 million this year, $5 million in 2017 and $5 million in 2018. Gillian said he is committed to seeing the entire $20 million program completed, but expressed hope that the state and federal governments will contribute funding in partnership with the city.
“It’s a lot of money, but we still have a lot of work to do,” he said.
