The Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday advertised for bidders on a massive project to restore dunes and rebuild eroded beaches at the southern end of Ocean City and in Strathmere and Sea Isle City.
The search for a contractor to complete the job is a sign that the long-awaited project remains on schedule for a start in late November.
The solicitation includes details on what the Ocean City portion of the project will include:
- “The plan for the south end of Ocean City consists of a berm and dune constructed with sand obtained from a borrow area about 2 miles offshore of Corson’s Inlet.”
- The dune crest will be at elevation 12.8 ft (NAVD88) with a top width of 25 feet and side slopes at a ratio of 1 vertical foot for every 5 horizontal feet.
- The berm will extend seaward from the seaward toe of dune for a distance of 100 feet at elevation 7.0 ft (NAVD88).
- The project extends from 34th Street to 59th Street (with a taper into Corson’s Inlet State Park) for a total length of 14,000 feet (2.7 miles).
- Recent surveys estimate initial construction sand quantity at 1.6 million cubic yards.
- Constructed dunes will be planted with beach grass. Sand fence will be placed at landward and seaward toe of dune where needed. Dune crossovers (pedestrian, vehicular, and ADA compliant) will be constructed with I-5 material and fenced with sand fence, split rail fence, or post and rail fence.
The bids on the project are expected to be opened on or about Oct. 3.
See the complete solicitation for bids on the project.
Richard Pearsall, spokesman for the federal Army Corps of Engineers, said last month that the work is expected to begin in late November.
The solicitation estimates project costs (including Strathmere and Sea Isle) to be anywhere from $25 million to $100 million. Pearsall said the Army Corps anticipates a cost of about $70 million.
The project will end a long waiting game for property owners in southern Ocean City, where the ocean met the bay during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and flattened protective dunes. Since then, the city used sand recovered from streets and trucked in from the mainland to rebuild a sand berm and to elevate beaches between 49th and 59th streets.
Beaches on that part of the island disappeared during some high tides even before Sandy hit in 2012. The temporary sand berm has held since Sandy, and the south end beaches have accommodated the usual crowds all summer.
But property owners and regular beachgoers fear that one strong storm could eat the beach and berm, leaving properties as exposed as they were after Sandy.
The Army Corps has approval to complete a multi-town project (with Strathmere and Sea Isle City) to rebuild beaches and restore dunes. The federal government will pay 100 percent of the price tag as part of Sandy disaster relief. The southern part of Ocean City would then be on a regular maintenance cycle for federal Army Corps beach restoration as the northern part of the island is.
The entire project will include the dredging of 4.2 million cubic yards of sand from a harvest area off the coast of Ocean City. It will bring 1.6 million cubic yards to Ocean City alone.
Pearsall said the contractor will determine where the project will start — which of the three towns gets sand first.
The funding and permits are in place.
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