By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Some of the sand dunes in the southern tip of Sea Isle City appear as though Mother Nature took a gigantic cleaver and sliced right through them as easily as a kitchen knife cutting through a cake.
Actually, huge chunks of sand have been washed away by the churning surf, leaving cliff-like walls that tower more than 10 feet high in the dunes between 88th and 93rd streets in Townsends Inlet.
Hoping to protect the dunes from coastal storms in the future, the federal agency that will oversee Sea Isle’s beach replenishment project this summer has come up with a novel way to save them – move them.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers believes that the stretch of dunes between 88th and 93rd streets is located too close to the ocean. Now, the agency plans to relocate the dunes landward.
“Since the beach in this location seems to be subject to more erosion than the rest of the project, the dune in its present seaward location will be subject to getting hit more often than the dune in the rest of the project. By moving the dune landward, we hope to avoid this to an extent,” Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Rochette explained in an email.
Rochette wasn’t immediately aware of any other beach replenishment projects in New Jersey that have involved moving the dunes landward. But he believes it has happened before in other parts of the country, if not New Jersey.
Dunes are the last line of defense to protect Sea Isle against coastal storms, acting as a massive wall to block the raging surf from damaging or destroying homes and businesses.
Rochette noted that the dunes that will be moved landward will continue to be a formidable barrier against the ocean. He indicated there will be no compromise in safety.
“If by moving the dune landward results in it maintaining its integrity more often through time, it can only help reduce the risk of storm damages to infrastructure, homes, businesses, etc.,” he said.
The Army Corps of Engineers will have its beach replenishment contractor excavate the sand and then push or transport it landward to create the new dune line or “template.”
“A good portion of the new dune template may already exist so we will add to this template to re-create the dune template at a more landward location,” Rochette said.
Plans call for creating dunes between 88th and 93rd streets that will be 14 feet, 8 inches high and have a top width of 25 feet.
“Ultimately, we are required to select the ‘optimum’ plan based on the level of protection and the cost to construct it,” Rochette said. “Different projects have different conditions and often have different dune/berm dimensions.”
The new dunes would be contoured to eliminate the jagged, cliff-like walls caused by Sea Isle’s beach erosion. The project will have the additional benefit of creating wider beaches where the dunes will be relocated landward.
Although large amounts of sand have been washed away in this area, what is left of the dunes actually shows they “have done their job in providing a last line of defense for the community,” Rochette said.
This summer, Sea Isle’s storm-eroded shoreline will be replenished with a total of 760,000 cubic yards of new sand.
The beach restoration project will be broken into two parts. Plans call for 510,000 cubic yards of sand to be deposited on the beaches from about 75th Street to 93rd Street in Townsends Inlet. Another 250,000 cubic yards of sand will freshen up the beaches from around 28th Street to 53rd Street in the center of town.
The stretch of beach from 28th to 53rd streets will be done first. Work will start in mid-June and take about 15 days to complete. The work between 75th and 93rd streets will start right after that and take about 30 days, Rochette said.
Even more sand may be coming for Sea Isle, depending on the results of pre-beach replenishment surveys to determine just how seriously the shoreline has been eroded by storms dating back to last fall, he noted.
Most of the replenishment contract involves widening the beaches. However, in some areas the dunes, beach access points and sand fencing will be repaired, Rochette said.
Sea Isle is part of a $32.5 million beach replenishment project that also includes Strathmere and Ocean City. There are options in the contract for even more sand if needed, which could increase the cost of the project to $41.3 million.
The project will be funded mostly by the Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The three towns will each kick in a smaller share. Sea Isle’s contribution is expected to be less than $2 million, City Business Administrator George Savastano said.
