Long-awaited $150M beach replenishment project takes a major step forward

The project in northern Ocean County has been on the books for decades but had no federal funding until after Hurricane Sandy in 2012

LAVALLETTE -- A long-awaited beach replenishment project for the northern Ocean County peninsula badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy has gone out for bid, state officials said Thursday.

The project, expected to cost $150 million, stretches 14 miles from Point Pleasant Beach to Berkeley Township.

It will be done in phases as state and local officials continue to try to get oceanfront access from 195 private property owners to do the work, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said.

With the project going out to bid this fall, Martin said he expects work to start in the spring in southern Mantoloking, Toms River, Lavallette, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park.

"This is a great day for these communities and for New Jersey," Martin said. "This crucial project will protect lives and property from the kind of devastation much of this area experienced during Superstorm Sandy."

Beach replenishment for Ocean County could be near

In making the announcement, Martin was joined in Lavallette by Lt. Col. Michael Bliss, commander of the Philadelphia district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as by local mayors and officials. The news marks the start of one of the last key sections of the New Jersey coastline targeted for engineered beaches.

The project has been designed for decades but was never built because of local opposition and the lack of federal funding. But that opposition waned after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 badly damaged the coastline.

Even when federal funding became available after Sandy, the project was delayed by more than a year as hundreds of property owners refused to grant easements for the work, forcing condemnation proceedings in court.

Because the bulk of those condemnations are in Bay Head, Point Pleasant Beach and Berkeley, Martin said. The project will exclude those towns until the state obtains those easements, Martin said.

"Getting to this point required a great deal of hard work at multiple levels of government," Bliss said. "Ultimately, this project will serve to reduce the risk of storm damages for communities that were among the hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy."

Martin reiterated the state's plan to continue to pursue the easements through eminent domain.

"We remain disappointed in those who still cannot see the bigger picture. We will use all necessary means to secure these easements, including our court-affirmed eminent domain authority," he said.

Bay Head oceanfront residents have said they don't need the project because a rock wall covered by sand provides the borough with sufficient storm protection.

They say they don't like the idea of giving up access to a strip of their property forever because they would have no control over repairs and maintenance to the dunes, particularly if there is no federal funding for the work.

In Point Pleasant Beach, the major oceanfront owner, Jenkinson's Boardwalk, is fighting the project because it says the state is trying to turn that privately-owned beach into a public beach.

The state has obtained nearly 350 easements so far and has 183 condemnation proceedings pending in court, Martin said. He said 83 are in Bay Head and 53 are in Point Pleasant Beach.

For most of the project area, dunes will be built 22 feet above sea level and beaches will be made anywhere from 100 to 300 feet wide and 8.5 feet above sea level with sand pumped from the ocean floor.

The federal government pays 65 percent of the tab with the remainder split between the state and the towns.