The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has vowed to have replenishment in Beach Haven completed before Memorial Day, Mayor Nancy Taggart Davis announced at the borough council’s organization meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Extra barges will help speed up the replenishment process in Beach Haven. |
“Beach Haven will be their main focus when they come back, probably sometime at the end of March. They guarantee me that they can finish in time for the summer,” she said, noting Army Corps officials Keith Watson and Lt. Col. Michael Bliss assured her the town would be the first to receive beach replenishment.
Last month, contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. stalled work on Long Beach Island and moved its barges to Georgia for environmentally sensitive, military-related projects. Since then, Taggart Davis has worked with Congressman Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.-2nd) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to bring the contractor back.
“They have worked tirelessly to get Great Lakes back on the job,” Taggart Davis said. “They have done everything possible to get this to happen. They really have fought for this.”
Great Lakes is expected to bring extra barges to work twice as fast when the company arrives back in the area. A decision is still pending on whether the beachfill will begin at 12th Street and head south to Nelson Avenue or vice versa. The town’s southern-most beaches have more erosion, but the northern beaches are more heavily trafficked in season.
Although there was discussion of putting some sand on the beaches now, Taggart Davis said doing so would slow down the project and push it into the summer.
“I personally didn’t think that would be a great plan because the band-aid of putting a little sand on the beach is not really going to help us if we have a major storm,” she said. “Literally they claim that by the time they lay the pipe, with the roughness and the coldness of the ocean in the winter, that it would take them a couple weeks just to get their pipes down and bring the sand in. So that’s not happening.”
The mayor noted the overall project was delayed earlier in other LBI municipalities, partly because of unsigned easements.
“The thing that is annoying to us in Beach Haven is that we were the first town on the Island that had all our easements, and we are the ones that have been somewhat ignored. They worked on 12th Street and then went north again and left us in the lurch. So they know that, and they know we’re upset about that.”
Luckily there is a “very good” possibility Great Lakes will be able to take nicer sand out of the Little Egg Inlet to replenish the beaches.
“This would open up the inlet, which is something we would desperately like to see happen. So keep your fingers crossed that it all works out well for Beach Haven,” Taggart Davis said.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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