Posted on March 10, 2020
Significant. That’s the word Long Beach Township Mayor Joe Mancini used to describe a project to use sand from the bay to fill Beach 3 in Holgate. The project, which began Tuesday at Pershing Avenue, is the result of the dredging of state channels by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
“This sets a precedent,” Mancini said Monday afternoon. “Originally, they were going to pump it to Parker Island. The biggest cost of dredging is moving the sand. They were going to charge $50 a cubic yard to move it. I was tickled (to learn) we got it.”
It was just a week ago that township officials learned of a change in plans in which they benefited twice – first with getting 7,000 cubic yards of sand, the equivalent of 325 truckloads, for only the cost of moving it, and second in timing. The project was expected to begin in October.
Mancini, who has worked for more than a decade to gain approval for using sand dredged from the bay as beachfill, said the material is “95 percent sand with no toxins. It’s better than what we could get” from other sources.
“It’s pure,” he said of the sand. “That’s where it comes from. I’ve never understood taking sand from the ocean for replenishment.”
The plan, which officials from the township, DOT, state Department of Environmental Protection and its contractors developed a little more than a week ago, calls for 500 yards of sand to be dredged and moved a day, weather permitting.
“It’s March,” Mancini said. “I am hoping we don’t get a significant nor’easter.”
The DEP approved a 10-year maintenance request by the DOT’s Office of Maritime Resources to dredge nine channels in bay waters off Long Beach Island on Jan. 29, just three weeks after public comments were due.
The project is for the restoration and maintenance of safe navigational depths for vessels between Long Beach Island and the bay. —G.G.S.
Source: thesandpaper.net
