Posted on October 30, 2026
State and federal dredge crews are stirring up Long Beach Island’s quiet off-season waters, making the channels feel as busy as the Island’s roads in spring, before road work clears out; against still marshes and empty slips, the churn is a reminder that the most recent nor’easter has passed, but hurricane season has not.
“The Dredge Murden is working at Barnegat Inlet,” Stephen Rochette, public information officer for the U.S. Army Corps, Philadelphia District, said last week.
The Murden is dredging the inlet channel and some of the ebb bars as conditions allow, he said.
“The sand is placed south of the jetty in two different locations” depending on conditions, Rochette said.
Dredge work was expected to continue for several days to a week, he added.
At the entrance to Barnegat Inlet, the N.J. Department of Transportation launched a $1 million emergency dredging project in Double Creek Channel earlier this month, after September’s nor’easter piled more sand across the channel and squeezed the bay’s main route to the Atlantic Ocean. Officials now say the work is needed to reopen a safe access point to the ocean.
That work began two weeks ago when H&L Construction, the state contractor for the project, laid pipes in Double Creek Channel and hydraulic dredging began, according to the NJDOT.
Up to 40,000 cubic yards of sand is expected to be removed from the channel, which lies just south of Oyster Creek Channel, state transportation officials have said. The work is expected to restore safe navigation to Double Creek.
Crews will dredge about 1,200 feet of the channel, from its entrance, to restore it to a depth of 7 feet at mean low water, according to the DOT.
The channel lies at the head of Barnegat Inlet’s flood shoal, where shifting sand can quickly make navigation more difficult. Barnegat Inlet is one of the east coast’s most dynamic navigable inlets, according to the DOT.
Work is expected to continue around the clock and finish in early November, the DOT said.
Dredged sand will be placed in a way intended to keep sediment within the system and protect from further degradation. Full closure of the channel is not expected; if one becomes necessary, the DOT will notify boaters through a Local Mariners Notice on social media.
While navigational aids may be removed during the project, the pipeline will be marked with buoys and lights, according to the DOT.
The Double Creek emergency dredging will not affect the state’s separate $8.4 million dredging project in the Beach Haven West complex, which began in July.
That project will restore the Harvey Cedars, Harvey Cedars 2, Margos, Beach Haven West Mill Creek, Cedar Run and Little Egg channels to their authorized depths, which range from 5 to 8 feet at mean low water. The work is intended to improve safe navigation and access to channels in Barnegat Bay.
H&L Construction is also leading the Beach Haven West project, which is expected to continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and finish in December. Crews will pump sand from the channels through a pipeline and deposit it at Dredged Hole 61. The pipeline will be marked with buoys and lights to protect boaters and keep traffic moving.
