OCEAN COUNTY – Officials recently announced plans for an upcoming beach replenishment project from Point Pleasant Beach to Berkeley’s South Seaside Park.
The total cost of the project will be approximately $60 million. The Army Corps of Engineers will pay $30 million, with the remaining $30 million paid by the state and municipalities.
Locally, towns were responsible for $8 million of the $60 million total, and the county will split that with them. The project is slated to start in early 2023.
“We received a call from the local mayors and they asked us to help,” said John P. Kelly, Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners.
A meeting was held earlier this month with county officials and municipal leaders from Berkeley, Seaside Park, Seaside Heights, Toms River, Lavallette, Brick, Mantoloking, Bay Head, Point Pleasant Beach and Point Pleasant Borough.
Kelly also noted that while Point Pleasant Borough has no oceanfront property and is not part of the replenishment effort, their leaders felt it was important to attend the session to support their neighboring communities.
Commissioner Deputy Director Virginia E. Haines said the beaches suffered severe erosion following several coastal storms that battered the coastline in recent years, including a major storm late last winter.
She added, “the beaches and dunes are vital to the protection of our towns and our residents. The Board of Commissioners felt it was right to step in and help our communities bear this cost.”
Many of the county’s smaller coastal communities have limited budgets and this cost would have cut into them severely. Kelly added that “there was an immediate consensus among the commissioners that we needed to help.”
This is the first project scheduled by the Army Corps of Engineers along the northern barrier island since it completed repairing and strengthening beaches right after Superstorm Sandy.
The amount of county funding for each project is as follows:
Bay Head: $714,000Berkeley: $159,000Brick: $450,000Lavallette: $336,500Mantoloking: $645,000Point Pleasant Beach: $135,500Toms River: $975,000Seaside Heights: $375,000Seaside Park: $191,000
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