Posted on May 30, 2017
By Chris Sheldon, wordontheshore.com
A lengthy beach replenishment project stretching from Long Branch to Loch Arbour will finally be completed next month.
“It’s been ongoing for about 3 years now and that was done in multiple phases, primarily to deal with coastal protection,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.
Martin made the announcement at the annual New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium State of the Shore event at McLoone’s Pier House in Long Branch on Wednesday, May 24.
The first phase of the $140 million project began in the spring of 2015 and included Phillps Avenue in southern Deal to Loch Arbour. The second phase of the project ran from Takanassee beach in Long Branch to the beach just north of Phillips Avenue.
Col. Paul Owen, Commander of the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversaw the replenishment project, said all of the easements, which total between 30 and 40, for the second half of the project were secured without the use of eminent domain and that the property owners were willing to work with the state.
The entire project will be the last of several that replaced sand on a 17-mile stretch of beach from Sea Bright to Manasquan. The goal is to protect coastal towns from future flooding and to repair the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Long Branch’s beaches, from the Monmouth Beach border to Takanassee Beach, were replenished in 2014 as part of the federally-funded project.
The next project for the DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers will be the sand replenishment of the beaches in northern Ocean County. The $128 million project will cover Ortley Beach and move northward.
Source: wordontheshore.com
