By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
It may not be enough sand to fill the Sahara Desert, but Sea Isle City will be getting an enormous amount of the white powdery stuff this fall to replenish its beaches.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees beach replenishment projects, says that a total of 640,000 cubic yards of fresh sand will help restore storm-eroded stretches of Sea Isle’s shoreline.
Army Corps spokesman Steve Rochette said the agency may advertise for bids this month and start the project sometime in the fall. The timetable won’t be clear until the Army Corps receives bids and awards the contract, he added.
Giving a sneak preview of the project, Rochette revealed Monday that about 252,000 cubic yards of sand will be placed on the beaches in the center of Sea Isle from about 29th Street to 53rd Street.
Another 388,000 cubic yards of sand will replenish the beaches in the south end of the island between 73rd Street and Townsends Inlet.
Sea Isle spokeswoman Katherine Custer stressed the importance of the partnership that the city has with the Army Corps and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for beach replenishment projects that keep the shoreline attractive and safe.
“The beach is our number one natural resource – and our community’s biggest attraction – and countless people enjoy spending time on Sea Isle’s beaches every year,” Custer said. “Being able to replenish our beaches after we lose sand during storm events is very important, and we will be grateful for every grain of sand we receive when the beach-fill occurs later this year.”
Custer noted that beach replenishment projects need a great deal of planning and well-timed execution.
“They are massive undertakings that require moving huge amounts of sand – but the end result is always well-received,” she said.
Sea Isle will be part of a broader beach replenishment project that also includes restoring parts of the storm-damaged shoreline in the south end of Ocean City and the town of Strathmere.
About 257,000 cubic yards of sand will replenish the beaches in the south end of Ocean City from 45th Street to 59th Street.
Strathmere is getting about 456,000 cubic yards of sand from Corson’s Inlet to around Taylor Avenue, Rochette said.
Altogether, the project will include about 1,353,000 cubic yards of sand for the three towns. A dump truck typically holds about 10 to 15 cubic yards of sand. Roughly speaking, the total amount of sand that will be placed on the beaches in the three towns will be equal to more than 100,000 dump truck loads.
But dump trucks won’t be delivering the sand. Instead, the sand will be dredged offshore from two spots – Corson’s Inlet and another location about three miles off Sea Isle, Rochette said.
The sand, in turn, will be pumped ashore through a massive network of pipes and then smoothed out along the beaches by bulldozers and other heavy construction machinery.
Earlier, the Army Corps had estimated that the total cost of the beach replenishment project for the three towns would be around $30 million. Rochette said the agency is working on updating the cost estimate as it prepares to advertise for bids.
He also pointed out that the estimated quantities of sand and the specific beaches that will be replenished are tentative until the Army Corps formally awards the contract.
Beach restoration projects are primarily funded by the federal government. Under the funding formula, the federal government kicks in 65 percent of the cost, while the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the towns that are getting their beaches replenished subdivide the remaining 35 percent.
Sea Isle’s last beach replenishment project occurred in the summer of 2020. At that time, 510,000 cubic yards of sand were pumped on the beaches from 74th Street to 93rd Street in Townsends Inlet. Another 250,000 cubic yards of sand replenished the beaches from 28th Street to 52nd Street in the center of town.
Heading into the summer tourism season this year, Sea Isle hired a contractor to perform “sand harvesting” operations to restore the storm-damaged beaches and dunes in Townsends Inlet from 88th Street to 92nd Street.
Sand was scraped near the water line at low tide and then placed on the beaches to widen the shoreline and strengthen the dunes. Sand harvesting is considered a temporary measure until Sea Isle’s beaches are fully restored by the Army Corps this fall.
