Beach Replenishment Project On Tap For Southern Long Beach Island

LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ - A beach replenishment project planned by the state will also help eliminate shoaling in the sand-choked Little Egg Inlet, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said.

Beaches and dunes on Southern Long Beach Island will be beefed up with sand dredged from the heavily-used Inlet, which is now "virtually impassable" for most boats, he said.

The DEP recently awarded an $18.4 million contract to Oak Brook, Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. to dredge 700,000 cubic yards of sand, with an option to dredge an additional 300,000 cubic yards if needed, Martin said.

“This important project will provide additional protections to the southern LBI area by replenishing beaches and dunes that have lost sand due to erosion from storms since completion of a major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach fill project last year,” he said.

The DEP is paying for the project using funds from its Shore Protection Program.

The sand will be put on beaches and dunes from Ocean Street in Beach Haven and south through Long Beach Township. The sand will repair eroded areas from storms since the Army Corps of Engineers completed a $128 million beach and dune construction project along most of LBI, he said.

The contractor will focus on the area from the terminal groin to Pershing Avenue in Holgate and areas just south of Nelson Avenue to Kentford Avenue and just north of Holyoke Avenue to Belvoir Avenue in Beach Haven.

The inlet dredging will clear a navigable boat channel a mile long and 24 feet below mean sea level to accommodate the numerous commercial and recreational fishing vessels, private boats and other craft that use the inlet to access Barnegat Bay, Great Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway, Martin said.

The wide Little Egg Inlet has never been dredged before.

The completion date for the project is March 1, 2018, in time for the next boating season.

The U.S. Coast Guard had been using buoys to mark the deepest and safest route in the inlet. At times, the markers extended as far as a mile out into the ocean. In other areas, the channel was less than six feet below mean sea level, according to a DEP release.

But the Coast Guard pulled the buoys in March because the building of sand had become too dangerous for boats. The Coast Guard warned boaters that if they used the inlet, it would be at their own risk.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently issued a permit needed to dredge the channel, following an extensive environmental review conducted in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and DEP. The DEP has also issued the required permits.

Photos: Courtesy of the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection