By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Think of it as the beach’s equivalent of a giant pothole.
But instead of filling in the pothole with fresh asphalt, some new sand did the trick.
Sea Isle City’s Public Works Department spread tons of sand this week near the jetty at 88th Street to level out a steep drop-off on the beach and create a pathway for vehicles.
City spokeswoman Katherine Custer said that a drop-off of about 5 or 6 feet had developed on the south side of the jetty, making it impossible for Public Works vehicles to drive on the beach.
People who have permits to drive on the beach, including fishermen, also could not get through the area because of the erosion, Custer noted.
The new sand, however, has filled in the drop-off and restored vehicle access near the dunes on 88th Street. Custer said the new sand will also make it easier for people to walk on the beach in the same area.
Photos and video posted on Facebook show that an extensive amount of work was done by the Public Works Department to create the vehicle pathway.
This same area of the beach and dunes between 88th and 92nd streets, in the south end of the island by Townsends Inlet, has been hammered by coastal storms and severe erosion the past year.
Last May, Sea Isle hired a contractor to fortify the eroded dunes between 88th and 92nd streets through a process known as “sand harvesting.” Essentially, sand was scrapped from the water’s edge and pushed up against the dunes by earthmovers.
Custer, though, said the beach restoration work that was done this week near the 88th Street jetty was not part of the sand harvesting operations.
“It’s basically beach maintenance. There’s often a lot,” she said in an interview Friday.
A strong coastal storm expected to arrive Saturday and linger into Sunday will bring with it the possibility of more beach erosion in the south end of town.
Sea Isle is waiting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a full-scale beach replenishment project in the spring to restore a much-larger stretch of the eroded shoreline.
Barring delays, Sea Isle’s replenished beaches will be ready just in time for the start of the Memorial Day weekend kickoff to the summer tourism season.
Altogether, 252,000 cubic yards of fresh sand will be placed on the beaches in central Sea Isle from about 29th Street to 53rd Street. Another 388,000 cubic yards of new sands will restore the beach in the south end from about 73rd Street up to Townsends Inlet.
