Sea Bright Beach Gets a Federal Boost

As promised, Sea Bright beaches are getting more girth — next year.

Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6) announced today that an unprecedented $102 million contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a massive shore beach replenishment project, beginning with a Sea Bright through Monmouth Beach contract to be awarded in June. With the Corps completing the project via three separate contracts, the other two for the remaining southern shore points, will, will be awarded in July.

Work under the Sea Bright/Monmouth Beach project is slated for completion by early 2014.

The work will be part of the largest beach nourishment project ever undertaken by the Corps and, in terms of sand volume, the world's biggest beach-fill project.

"Once completed, the greater protective barrier between the coastal communities and the ocean will reduce the risk of flooding and storm related damages," Pallone said in a released statement.

After Hurricane Sandy's clean-up in Sea Bright pushed the sand back off the streets and piled it high into what is now referred to as Mount Sandy, the borough underwent an $8.5 million beach replenishment project that pumped more than one million cubic yards of sand onto Sea Bright's shores. 

The fourth Sea Bright project in a decade, planned long before Sandy, the latest did not satiate the mounting replenishment needs after the storm.

In addition, a couple of storms, a few high tides and Nor'Easter later and the Sea Bright shoreline has been reduced to little more than a sliver. So, officials rallied for more federal funds for more replenishment and storm abatement work; and that money is now on its way.

With this comprehensive shore project, the Army Corps of Engineers will replenish the beach to its original design profile, which will make it beach even wider than it was prior to Sandy, Pallone said in the release.