Sea Bright Beach Replenishment Tide High

By Christopher Sheldon with contribution by Elaine Van Develde

Work on the $25 million Monmouth Beach to Sea Bright portion of what has been dubbed the largest beach replenishment project to date has already begun and will likely be completed in about 80 days, or about the middle of October, Army Corps of Engineers New York District Commander Col. Paul E. Owen said during a press conference with Congressman Frank Pallone (D-6) in Monmouth Beach Thursday afternoon.

The contract to pump 2.5 million cubic yards of sand into the Sea Bright-Monmouth Beach stretch was awarded in June by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, LLC.

A contract had been awarded pre-Hurricane Sandy for Sea Bright replenishment, which, considering the massive erosion and damage to the shoreline from the story, was not enough.

Then came a Nor'easter and wiped most of the insufficient refill away.

Then the contract for the Belmar to Manasquan section will be awarded this week, followed by Long Branch in mid-August and Asbury to Avon in early September.

"We're thinking around this time next year, maybe into August, is when we'll be able to have the whole 18-mile stretch, which does not include the three miles from Loch Arbour to Elberon, done," Owen said.

Owen said the Loch Arbour to Elberon section has been authorized but that there are "still some issues to work out with local communities."

"We're hopeful we can get those worked out and continue to provide a continuous 21-mile stretch of protection and risk reduction for this part of the Jersey Shore," Owen said.

Pallone said the Elberon to Loch Arbour section would begin at Takanassee Lake and end at Deal Lake and said that stretch of beach has never been replenished "because local officials were not interested."

"But in the aftermath of this storm and because of the damage and also probably because it's 100 percent federally funded, they decided they do want to do it, so we're in the process of basically doing some design work and getting the easements together for that," Pallone said. "We suspect we will be able to do that next year."