Shore Environment

Beach Replenishment Project Moving Along in Mantoloking

by
Daniel Nee
November 28, 2017

Beach replenishment work in Mantoloking, N.J., Nov. 27, 2017. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The island’s beach replenishment project has spanned the majority of Mantoloking since beginning last month.

The borough’s beachfront – including the site of the ocean breach that experts say was responsible for flooding on both sides of Barnegat Bay – has been extended hundreds of feet, with a 22 foot-high berm that, once vegetated, will become a powerful dune. Contractors Weeks Marine arrived Oct. 5 and has been pumping sand over the course of most of October and all of November. Crews on Monday were spreading sand just south of the Downer Avenue beach.

Beach replenishment work in Mantoloking, N.J., Nov. 27, 2017. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Local officials have said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project, has reported the project remaining on time. Without any powerful nor’easters which usually jolt the Jersey Shore during the fall, crews have not been prevented from working. The job in Mantoloking may last into January.

According to the Army Corps, the next phase of work will be completed in Seaside Heights during January and February, then Seaside Park between March and May.

A separate set of dredge boats will complete replenishment in Brick, Normandy Beach, Toms River’s northern beaches and Ortley Beach after the new year.

Beach replenishment work in Mantoloking, N.J., Nov. 27, 2017. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The work includes new dune crossovers that will deter breaching during storms, and the vegetation that will serve as the base for the same level of protection that some towns benefited from during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.