By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
It seems like a relatively simple process: Take sand from one part of the beach and use it to fortify storm-damaged dunes on another part of the beach.
But in this case, there are mountains of sand, a giant excavator, a bulldozer and two large dump trucks in a scene unfolding on the beaches of Sea Isle City in the southern end of the island.
Walters Marine Construction, a contractor hired by Sea Isle, began the emergency “sand harvesting” operations on Monday to strengthen a section of severely eroded dunes from 88th Street to 92nd Street in the Townsends Inlet area.
Coastal storms over the winter and spring washed away much of the dune barrier in the four-block area, leaving oceanfront homes with little protection from the surging waves.
Sea Isle stepped in to strengthen the dunes until the beaches begin to replenish themselves through the natural buildup of sand that typically occurs in late spring and the summer.
Wayne Trucksess, a foreman for Walters Marine, said the project is expected to continue for up to two weeks. At this point, he is not sure exactly how much sand will be harvested to replenish the depleted dunes. But it will be a lot.
“It’s very simple. We’re harvesting as much sand as possible from the high point of the low tide line,” he explained.
Sand is taken from the water’s edge during low tide to shore up the dunes. In turn, the sand that is scraped away near the ocean is then naturally restored by the waves during the incoming tides, so nothing is really lost, Trucksess said.
With assembly-line efficiency Monday, a Walters Marine bulldozer pushed sand from the water’s edge next to a massive excavator. The excavator, in turn, scooped up the sand and loaded it into the back of two dump trucks.
The trucks transported the piles of sand up the beach and unloaded it in front of the eroded dunes on 88th Street. Throughout the day, huge piles of sand dotted the beach in an unusual landscape.
Eventually, the sand will be pushed up closer to the oceanfront homes to create a new protective barrier of dunes. The replenished dunes will stretch from 88th Street to 92nd Street.
“Hopefully, knock on wood, we’ll have some good weather and in the next two weeks we’ll hit it hard,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said of the work to strengthen the dunes.
Sea Isle is pushing to get the project completed in time for Memorial Day weekend, the traditional kickoff for the bustling summer tourism season.
“That should help us get the beach ready before Memorial Day,” Savastano noted.
Sea Isle initially began sand harvesting operations in February after the dunes were sheared away between 88th and 92nd streets. The edge of the dunes had become mini-cliffs towering about 10 to 20 feet high.
Another bout of storms in March washed away much of the new sand that was placed against the dunes in February. Now, Sea Isle has brought in Walters Marine of Ocean View to fortify the dunes on an emergency basis. Savastano said the project is expected to cost more than $100,000.
In one dramatic case, an oceanfront house at the end of 90th Street appears to be only a few feet from where the dunes drop off. Other oceanfront homes are close to the edge of the eroded dunes.
Alice Costello, who lives in an oceanfront home at 91st Street and Pleasure Avenue, noted that she and her husband, Tony, have had to contend with flooding before. She said that during one storm, water came all the way up to their steps.
“Many times, and we refuse to leave,” Costello said of all the flooding episodes she and her husband have experienced since they bought a house in Townsends Inlet in 1991.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio said he has spoken to some of the neighboring homeowners to assure them that the city “will do what we can” to protect their houses.
Meanwhile, the city has erected barriers to prevent people from walking on some of the beach pathways in Townsends Inlet and getting too close to the dune drop-offs.
Trucksess said he is not sure why the beaches and dunes in the area of 88th to 92nd streets are so vulnerable to erosion.
He speculated that it might be a combination of strong wave action created by deep waters just offshore and the dynamics of the nearby Townsends Inlet, a swift-running channel that connects the bay and ocean.
“It’s the inlet,” he said.
Later this year, Sea Isle will be part of an estimated $30 million federal project to restore the eroded beaches with new sand. Strathmere and the southern part of Ocean City will also have their beaches replenished in the same project.
The contract for that project is expected to be awarded in July by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but it is not yet known how much sand will be added and which beaches will be restored. The project is tentatively scheduled to get underway after Labor Day.
If the work begins after Labor Day, it means that the summer beach crowds will not have to contend with the heavy construction equipment and massive pipes that are typically used for replenishment projects.
