Point Pleasant Canal Bulkhead Repairs Complete, U.S. Army Corps Says

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — Work to shore up the Point Pleasant Canal entrance from the Manasquan River has been completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced.

The $3.2 million project that started in December 2023 included the removal of badly deteriorated steel bulkheading at the entrance along the canal's eastern shoreline, said Stephen Rochette, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

After demolishing the deteriorated structures (see them below in a photo take by the U.S. Army Corps before the project started) the contractor, UH Services Group LLC of Metairie, Louisiana, then installed new steel sheet piling and associated features along with backfill stone, and riprap was placed in the water.

"The bulkhead and associated features were brought up to current design standards to add increased resilience to this portion of the Canal bulkhead," the Army Corps announcement said. The project was funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act­, the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed in November 2021 and was signed into law in 2022.

The Point Pleasant Canal is about 150 feet wide and 1.7 miles long and was constructed in 1925, according to a 2013 U.S. Army Corps article about bulkheading repairs along part of the canal.

It connects the Manasquan River, about one mile from the ocean on the northern end, and Bay Head Harbor and the Metedeconk River on the southern end. It is widely used by pleasure boaters, the U.S. Coast Guard and New Jersey State Police Marine Services.

The sheet-pile bulkhead, installed between 1965 and 1972, retains the sides of the canal and protects the embankment. Bulkheads typically have a 50-year life. Sections of a bulkhead exposed to tide cycles are particularly vulnerable to rust and corrosion because of the daily exposure to sea water and oxygen, the Army Corps has said.

The Point Pleasant Canal is a component of the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway federal navigation project that extends from the Manasquan River to the entrance to the Cape May Canal on the Delaware Bay, a total of 117 miles.

"The New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway provides a safe, reliable, and operational navigation channel for the East Coast’s largest and 5th most valuable commercial fishing fleet in the U.S. (Cape May/Wildwood) and nine U.S. Coast Guard Stations including the Cape May training base," the Army Corps said.

The bulkhead work is separate from repairs that were recently completed to safety fencing along the canal where people walk and fish and watch boats passing through the waterway. More work is planned, with $3 million committed to the project, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith said.