By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
In some parts of Sea Isle City, there is too little sand. In other parts, there is too much.
A major project is underway by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to place close to 1 million cubic yards of fresh sand on the beaches to restore stretches of Sea Isle’s eroded shoreline by Memorial Day weekend.
Yet just the opposite is occurring on some of the pathways that lead to the beach. Some of them have too much sand, making it difficult for senior citizens, people with disabilities and families with young children to make their way to the beachfront.
“Over time, the sand has built up,” City Councilwoman Mary Tighe explained. “It’s hard to navigate.”
Tighe said the city is planning to remove excess sand from the pathways to get them ready for the summer season. Some pathways may be redesigned to eliminate the steep slopes that can be challenging for beachgoers, she added.
“How can we redesign them, so maybe the slope isn’t so great?” Tighe said in an interview Friday.
There are also plans to extend some of the ever-popular mobility mats Sea Isle uses every summer to make it easier for beachgoers to cross over the deep sand, Tighe noted.
“We are looking at redesigning the pathways and extending the mobi-mats to make them longer,” she said.
The plastic mats lie on top of the sand, providing an easier transition from the gravel pathways over the dunes to the beaches. They are sometimes referred to as “mobi-mats.”
Seniors, small children, people with disabilities and families lugging strollers to the beach are helped by the mats. Every summer, local residents and visitors urge the city to install more mats to make their treks across the sand even smoother.
Beach mats make it easier to cross over the deep sand.
Storms and the windy conditions typical of the shore have pushed too much sand on some of the pathways. That, in turn, has covered up the hard-pack gravel areas that are supposed to make it easier for beachgoers to walk over the pathways.
Tighe plans to tour some of the pathways with City Business Administrator George Savastano to see what can be done to make them better.
“I’ve gotten George to commit to walk with me down the paths,” she said.
During the April 9 meeting of City Council, Savastano said the city will be working with a private construction contractor to get the pathways ready for summer.
“We’ll be getting them cleaned in the next 6½ weeks,” he said.
The city’s Public Works crews also help to keep the pathways and beach mats clear of excess sand.
One of the pathways where too much sand has built up is at the 74th Street beach, Tighe said. Tighe lives on 74th Street with her 82-year-old mother, Marie Tighe.
“My mom is one of those people who has trouble going up and down,” Tighe said of her mother’s difficulty walking on the beach pathway at 74th Street.
Tighe said she has seen other beach pathways that have too much sand. In addition to her mother, she knows of other residents who struggle to walk over the beach pathways.
Before she had her left knee surgically replaced, Tighe said she also had difficulty walking on the pathway at 74th Street.
Knowing what it is like to struggle on the pathways has given her a deeper understanding of the physical challenges that seniors face while heading to the beach, she said.
A Public Works employee uses a front-end loader to level off the beach pathway at 39th Street in February 2023 after a storm caused erosion.
Interestingly, at the same time Sea Isle is dealing with the problem of too much sand on some of the pathways, some stretches of the beachfront and dunes don’t have enough sand.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supervising a beach replenishment project that will add a total of 932,000 cubic yards of new sand in two areas: in the midsection of the island between 29th and 53rd streets and in the south end between 73rd and 94th streets up to Townsends Inlet.
To put that amount of sand into perspective, it is enough to fill 140 football fields four feet deep, Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio said.
Some parts of the beaches and dunes have been severely eroded by storms. The dunes in the south end have been eaten away by the ocean, leaving sharp mini-cliffs towering about 10 to 20 feet high. Some of the pathways to the beach simply dead end in midair because of the erosion.
Savastano indicated that the Army Corps will restore the depleted beaches, dunes and pathways in the areas that are included in the replenishment project. The project is focusing on the south end now and will next head north to take care of the eroded beaches in the midsection of town.
According to Savastano, the project is on schedule to be completed by Memorial Day weekend, the traditional kickoff to the summer tourism season, when tens of thousands of vacationers crowd Sea Isle’s beaches.
“As we stand right now, we’re on track,” he said of the project finishing up by Memorial Day weekend.
Noting that Memorial Day is only about six weeks away, Savastano called it “crunch time” to get the beach work done.
Sand cliffs towering 10 to 20 feet high have been carved in the depleted dunes in the south end of Sea Isle.
