Posted on November 1, 2016
Following the completion of beach replenishment in Harvey Cedars – in progress now as part of a locally funded project – contractor Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. will move to Holgate for repairs, marking the conclusion of the current beachfill contract. Operations are slated to shift to Holgate, a section of Long Beach Township on the south end of Long Beach Island, sometime next week, and the work should take approximately three weeks.
Although Ship Bottom was initially in line to receive supplementary sand this fall, it was decided Holgate is in greater need of restoration.
Great Lakes “had laid the pipe in southern Ship Bottom in anticipation of the originally proposed repairs of damage from (winter storms) Joaquin and Jonas,” explained Steve Rochette, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal project sponsor. “However, after discussions with the Army Corps, the state (Department of Environmental Protection), Ship Bottom and Long Beach Beach Township, it was determined that much of Ship Bottom exceeded the beach and dune design template and it would be best to have the project team focus on repairs in Holgate.”
Rochette said of the job in Holgate, for which a pipe landing will be made near Inlet Avenue, “The additional work will place approximately 300,000 cubic yards of sand onto some of the most receded shoreline there. This will exhaust the resources we have remaining for the completion of the initial construction.”
Dredging and beachfill operations for the current contract – which is 100 percent funded by the 2013 Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, known as the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill – began in Ship Bottom in early May 2015, then moved to various segments of Long Beach Township.
The work in Harvey Cedars, which is not part of the current contract, is replenishment via cost share, as the borough wanted to take advantage of the dredges while Great Lakes is still working locally. Earlier this month Harvey Cedars approved an ordinance to allocate $631,000 to repair the beaches from Hudson Street to 80th Street, which were damaged by Winter Storm Jonas last January.
The total cost of that project, which Rochette described as “funded by the community and the state as additional work under our Project Partnership Agreement,” is $2.1 million.
Initial construction of the LBI Coastal Storm Damage Reduction project was completed in Surf City in 2006. Harvey Cedars was replenished in 2010, and from 31st to 57th Street in LBT’s Brant Beach section was filled in 2012. The Corps repaired beaches in Surf City and Harvey Cedars in 2012, after Hurricane Irene, and restored all three areas in 2013, following Sandy’s destruction. That work was fully funded through the Army Corps’ Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies program.
In December 2014, the Corps awarded the current contract to Great Lakes, for $128 million, to complete initial construction of the LBI project.
For project updates, visit nap.usace.army.mil.
Source: The SandPaper.Net
