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$24M beach fill project for Loch Arbour through Deal gets started with Weeks Marine

Posted on January 3, 2022

LOCH ARBOUR – Over the objections of some environmentalists, a $24 million beach fill project has started here and is expected to be completed by March 1, pending  major weather delays.

Three Jersey Shore towns — Loch Arbour, Allenhurst and Deal — will get sand in the beach replenishment project, which is being carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers. It will restore more than 1.1 million cubic yards of sand to the towns’ beaches. The amount of fill is equivalent to 51 football fields.

The federal investment in the project is $16.9 million, which is 65% of the total cost. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, said state and local funds will make up the remaining cost.

Pallone, who has been a longtime advocate for beach replenishment along the Jersey Shore, called the project critical to protecting the beach and local communities.

“Coastal restoration projects like beach replenishment ensure that our beaches and infrastructure remain resilient to bad weather events. I would like to thank the Army Corps of Engineers for their continued dedication to this important project in our state,” Pallone said.

The project received pushback from a coalition of environmental and beach access groups led by local chapters of the Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club, who met on the beach in Deal in October to oppose it, a week after the replenishment was announced.

The coalition contends that beach replenishment does more to protect wealthy homeowners, damages the coastal ecology, and, ultimately, the added sand washes back into the sea and has to be replaced.

The group wants New Jersey lawmakers to reject a bill that would double the amount of money the state puts toward shore protection projects each year from $25 million to $50 million.

The bill passed the state Senate and currently sits in committee in the state Assembly.

At the very least, the coalition wants a new funding formula that would require beachfront property owners to pay the lion’s share of the costs instead of putting the burden on taxpayers. By the coalition’s count, over $1.5 billion has been spent on New Jersey beach replenishment dating back to the 1980s.

Bradley Beach councilman John Weber, who is also the Mid Atlantic regional manager of Surfrider Foundation, heads a rally against beach replenishment on Thursday.

This new round of beach fill follows a federal beach renewal project that stretched from Manasquan Inlet to Sea Bright that started in 1994 and finished in 2001.

That project area was replenished again following superstorm Sandy, using 8 million cubic yards of sand.

Pallone said beaches where replenishment has been done get new fill about every six years on average.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com. 

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