With beach replenishment set to start in northern Ocean County in the spring, some towns say they can't wait for the federal work to make repairs Watch video
Newly battered from a powerful nor'easter that clung to the coast earlier this week, some Jersey Shore towns are angling to be the first in line for a beach fill project scheduled to start this spring while others continue their fight against the massive replenishment work.
Several northern Ocean County beaches remain closed indefinitely as officials continue to assess the damage from Monday's storm, whose wind-driven waves carved cliffs as high as 25 feet in some areas, ripped apart wooden staircases and exposed buried protective barriers.
But with the federal beach replenishment project still months away, some beach towns say they need to have the work done sooner rather than later and will be pleading their case to be first on the list.
"The schedule for where the work will start hasn't been decided but we made a strong case that they should start in Ortley," said Paul Shives, business administrator for Toms River. "If this is what happens for a storm that is far from severe, then we need it done."
$128M contract awarded for northern Ocean County beach replenishment work
The Ortley Beach section of the township, which Shives called "Ground Zero for (Hurricane) Sandy" in 2012, has been battered every year since Sandy. And each time, the township has paid to have sand trucked onto the beach to protect the boardwalk and the houses behind it.
Shives said Ortley lost 80 percent of the beach in this nor'easter. The erosion stopped short of the boardwalk but left 12-foot cliffs, destroyed four sets of wooden staircases and damaged three other sets, he said.
A contractor is ready to start trucking in sand beginning Thursday, stopgap work that will cost the town somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000, Shives said. That's in addition to the $1 million Toms River paid last year to have sand trucked in last year after winter storm Jonas in January 2016 and another smaller storm shortly after that.
Because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn't yet decided where the replenishment work will start on the northern Ocean County peninsula, Shives said the town has no choice but to spend the money for the temporary fill.
"If we have another storm in the next few weeks and do nothing in the interim, then we're going to have property damage," he said.
The Army Corps two weeks ago awarded a $128 million contract to Weeks Marine of Cranford to replenish beaches from Point Pleasant Beach to Berkeley Township. Under the plan, the federal government would be responsible over the next 50 years for repairing the dunes and beaches it builds.
Another town on the peninsula vying to be first for the project is Mantoloking, which for decades had resisted replenishment. But most residents changed their mind after Sandy decimated the affluent residential community.
The nor'easter exposed the entire length of a steel wall installed along the beach at a narrow section of town to protect Route 35, which had been destroyed by Sandy. It exposed a rock wall that had been covered by sand to serve a protective dune for the homes behind it. And it created cliffs of at least 12 feet, prompting officials to close the beach.
Mayor George Nebel said the borough is considering not rebuilding the wooden stairs leading down to the beach, depending on when the federal project starts.
In Brick, the nor'easter completely exposed another steel wall installed after Sandy. The erosion left drop-offs ranging from 4 feet in the northern end to 15 feet to the south, said Mayor John Ducey. Because of that, all 1.8 miles of beaches there are closed, he said.
While Brick waits for replenishment, the steel wall will serve as sufficient protection against new storms in the interim, so the town won't need sand to be trucked in, Ducey said. Instead, township crews will wait until the sand returns at the shoreline to push it up to the beach with bulldozers, he said.
To the north, Bay Head's beaches got battered. The nor'easter exposed a rock wall that had been covered by sand - the town's main line of defense against storms. It splintered wooden staircases, knocked them off their foundations in the rock wall, and uncovered wooden pilings from an old boardwalk.
But unlike the other towns, Bay Head doesn't want the replenishment work, which Gov. Chris Christie ordered for every Shore town along the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey. Insisting the rock wall is sufficient protection, a group of oceanfront residents is fighting the state mandate and is set to go to court on Feb. 6 to try to sway Ocean County Superior Court Assignment Judge Marlene Lynch Ford that they don't need the federal project.
Thom Ammirato, a spokesman for the group, said the Bay Head oceanfront residents are prepared to pay for the repairs out of their own pockets, something they've been doing for decades.
He said that in resisting the replenishment, residents are concerned, among other things, that if funding for the project dries up, the town will be left with an ineffective storm protection. By giving up their rights to the property where dunes would be built by the federal government, they'd be giving up control over making repairs when needed, he said.
"What works for us is great," he said. "We don't want the government's help. We don't need the government's help."
MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.