Posted on May 2, 2016
By MaryAnn Spoto, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A beach replenishment project for the northern Ocean County peninsula will be broken up into at least two phases and is expected to go out to bid the end of this summer, officials said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has told the state that enough of the long-standing property issues should be resolved to the point that it can start seeking a contractor by August to begin the beach replenishment work, said Bob Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
While word of the potential start for the project is welcome news for many of the towns on the peninsula, the mayors of these communities still aren’t counting this as a done deal because of the numerous previous delays.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s going because we’ve been told this so many times,” said Brick Township Mayor John Ducey. “One-and-a half months ago they told us it was June (to go out to bid) and now they’re saying August.”
The homeowners say the steel wall ruined their access to the beach and they weren’t paid for the loss of their property.
But, Ducey said, that at a recent meeting of Ocean County mayors, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin told the mayors about the anticipated August bid date and also reiterated that message to him and the township’s business administrator in a conference call.
He said the plan is to widen beaches from Mantoloking to Seaside Park during the first phase of the project where most of the property acquisition issues have been resolved.
Beaches in Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head – where the most vehement resistance to the project has been – would come at a later phase, he said Martin told the mayors.
The project – ordered by Gov. Chris Christie after Hurricane Sandy pummeled New Jersey’s coastline in 2012 – has been delayed in northern Ocean County because of the refusal of many oceanfront property owners to give up the rights to a slice of their land for the project to be constructed.
The state is finally closer to getting those rights –known as easements – after some residents conceded but also after the state moved to take those parcels through eminent domain. Those cases are just starting to make their way through the courts.
“Depending on when the real estate acquisition is finalized, we may be in a position to advertise a contract in late summer,” said Stephen Rochette, spokesman for the Army Corps’ Philadelphia district. He said the actual construction start would depend in part on the availability of dredging equipment nationwide.
Ducey said the major stumbling block in Brick was the refusal of homeowners associations to grant the easements. But now all the homeowners associations have signed off on the project and the state has condemnation actions against most of the approximately 27 private property owners who haven’t signed easements, Ducey said.
“There is light on the horizon because we know a lot of these land issues have been resolved,” Ducey said.
In the meantime, Brick, like many of its neighboring oceanfront towns, is scrambling to repair beaches left as mere ribbons of sand after a series of winter nor’easters.
About a half-mile of Brick’s beach is practically inaccessible because the sand east of a steel wall installed to shore up Route 35 has eroded to the point that there is a steep drop-off to the ocean.
This week, township public works crews started pushing sand westward at low tide to try to elevate and widen the beach, Ducey said. Next week, loads of sand will start being delivered to Brick’s beaches to further help protect its coastline and cover the exposed steel wall, he said.
That is expected to cost $600,000 but could go as high as $750,000 – a tab to be reimbursed by the state – if another storm rolls through and creates more damage, Ducey said.
http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2016/04/beach_replenishment_for_northern_ocean_county_coul.html
