Ocean City construction projects to benefit beaches, Boardwalk and bayfront

Major projects costing tens of millions of dollars are coming this year to Ocean City’s beaches, Boardwalk and bayfront.

Mayor Jay Gillian gave a preview of what’s ahead during a 90-minute town hall meeting Saturday attended by dozens of local residents.

“A lot of new things are coming up,” he told the audience at the beginning of his remarks at the library.

Focusing on the beach, Gillian said newly approved federal funding will help to replenish storm-damaged sections of the shoreline in the north end and downtown parts of Ocean City.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew announced on Tuesday that a total of $99 million in federal funding will help restore beaches in Ocean City, Strathmere, Sea Isle City, Avalon and Stone Harbor.

Some of Ocean City’s beaches in the northern end and downtown suffered serious erosion in recent months from offshore hurricanes and coastal storms, including areas where the dunes were sheared away by the waves to leave mini-sand cliffs in their wake.

    Mayor Jay Gillian addresses the audience during the town hall meeting at the Ocean City Free Public Library.
  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Friday that $25 million has been approved for beach and dune replenishment in the north end of town. Gillian said the project will stretch from Seaspray Road to 14th Street.

Ocean City will also be part of a $28 million beach replenishment project that will include the south end of town, Strathmere and Sea Isle City, according to the Army Corps.

“They’re really going to come in and take care of all of our beaches. So we’re really happy about that.” Gillian said of the Army Corps.

The Army Corps said a news release that it is preparing to solicit bids from private contractors for the projects. The timing for construction will depend on the bids and the availability of dredging equipment. 

Gillian noted that the city has spoken to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and has been assured that the government is going to fast-track the project.

“It’s going to be amazing how quick this goes. All the permits and all that will be in place,” he said.

    The audience listens to Mayor Jay Gillian, center front, during the
meeting.
  

More than 1 million cubic yards of fresh sand will be pumped onto Ocean City’s beaches. Ocean City will pay $3.3 million for its share of the cost of the project, Gillian said.

“Some of the people say that beach replenishment is like pouring money into the ocean, because the sand just washes away. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The program has helped Ocean City establish an almost unbroken line of protective dunes from tip to tip. This has saved lives, property and our economy,” he said.

In the meantime, the city has been stockpiling extra sand to patch eroded sections of the beach heading into the busy summer tourism season. Gillian pledged that the beaches will be in good shape for the summer.

“No matter what, we’re always going to be ready, because we have to be,” he said of the importance of the beaches during the tourism season.

Shifting to the Boardwalk, Gillian told the audience that the city’s most popular manmade attraction is getting an overhaul that includes new wood decking, a new support foundation, railings, ramps and decorative lamp posts.

Altogether, the project will cost about $7 million, but most of it will be covered by a $4.9 million grant from the state Boardwalk Preservation Fund to help ease the financial burden on local taxpayers.

    New wood decking is being installed on the Boardwalk between 12th and 14th streets.
  

The city competed the first phase of the project from St. Charles Place to Fifth Street in late March. Now, contractors are rebuilding the Boardwalk from 12th to 14th streets and should be finished in a couple of weeks.

After the summer season, the section of Boardwalk between 14th and 16th streets will be rebuilt.

“When we’re done, almost the entire Boardwalk will have been rebuilt within the last 10 years,” Gillian said.

Touching on the bayfront, Gillian said the city is hopeful of securing a $5 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to rebuild the eroded wetlands of Shooting Island.

Shooting Island is a 133-acre island sitting in the middle of the back bay, just across a narrow channel off 20th Street. It is an uninhabited flat land mass under threat from erosion.

The city and the NJDEP have been discussing plans to help rebuild the island’s wetlands by possibly using sediment dredged from the back bays as an environmentally friendly material.

The benefits of the project would be twofold: The Island’s fragile wetlands would be restored, while Ocean City would gain another disposal site for material taken out of the shallow back bays during its extensive, multiyear dredging program.

    An excavator scoops out sediment from a channel during an earlier round of dredging in Ocean City. 

City officials have also explained that the rebuilding of Shooting Island’s wetlands would create more storm protection for the bayfront sections of Ocean City itself.

As it does each winter, the city dredged sediment from the bayfront lagoons and waterways this year to make them deeper for boating and other recreational activities in the summer months.

Most of the dredging work was completed over the winter, despite icing on the bay during the harsh weather, Gillian noted.

“Fortunately, most of the work was done and our lagoons are in great shape. We reached a point where all of our waterways are deep enough and we’re in maintenance mode now,” he said.