By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
On the same day that Ocean City’s beaches continued to take a pounding from a lingering coastal storm, a federal agency announced a new contract to restore the shoreline with more than 1 million cubic yards of fresh sand.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $21.5 million contract Monday to pump 1.2 million cubic yards of sand on the beaches from 14th Street to the Seaview Road jetty – an area encompassing the northern end and downtown parts of the island.
Sand will be dredged offshore from an area of Great Egg Harbor Inlet known as a “borrow site” and then pumped through a pipeline onto the beaches.
The Army Corps will issue a formal “notice to proceed” to the contractor this month and anticipates work will begin in November, the agency said. The project is expected to be completed before the 2023 summer tourism season.
The contractor, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Illinois, has done other beach replenishment projects in Ocean City in the past.
Work is designed to reduce damage and erosion from coastal storms. Ocean City’s beaches have been pummeled for three straight days from heavy surf churned up by the remnants of Hurricane Ian and a nor’easter parked along the Jersey Shore. Drenching rains, strong winds and flooding are forecast to continue through Tuesday.
Beach replenishment in Ocean City initially was done in 1992 and continues on a three-year cycle in partnership between the town, the Army Corps’ Philadelphia office and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Beach restoration projects are primarily funded by the federal government. Under the funding formula, the federal government kicks in 65 percent of the cost, while the Department of Environmental Protection and the towns that are getting their beaches replenished subdivide the remaining 35 percent.
In a separate project estimated to cost $30 million, the shoreline in Ocean City’s south end will be replenished in 2023 along with the beaches in Strathmere and Sea Isle City, it was announced earlier this year. The contract for that project still must be awarded.
The replenishment projects help the tourist-dependent city keep its beaches in tip-top shape so it may continue attracting summer vacationers.
Besides the aesthetic value of having wide, powdery beaches, the city will also benefit from the restoration project by having a bigger barrier of sand and dunes to protect homes, businesses, the Boardwalk and roads from the ocean’s storm surge.
The $21.5 million project will replenish beaches in the city’s northern end as well as the downtown section up to 14th Street. The area includes a particularly vulnerable stretch of beach at Fifth Street where the dunes are often washed away by storms, leaving sharp, cliff-like drop-offs.
“Obviously, that’s where we need it the most,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said of the replenishment of the north end and downtown beaches during comments earlier in the year.
