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Final phase of $86 million beach replenishment kicks off

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The start of the final phase of the $86 million federally funded beach replenishment project in Monmouth County was celebrated at Deal Casino on Tuesday afternoon.

DEAL - The start of the final phase of the $86 million federally funded beach replenishment project in Monmouth County was celebrated at Deal Casino on Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. was joined by Col. David Caldwell, of the N.Y. District of the Army Corps of Engineers, and other local, state and federal officials at the beach club on the rainy December afternoon to kick off the final phase of the project.

The first phase of the project, which began earlier this year and is currently wrapping up, pumped approximately 1.4 million cubic yards of sand on 1.6 miles of beaches in Loch Arbour, Allenhurst and southern Deal from a site in the ocean off Sea Bright.

The second phase will pump another 1.4 million cubic yards of sand on two miles of beaches from Phillips Avenue in Deal to Lake Takanassee in Long Branch.

The $86.7 million price tag for the project was funded federal through Sandy relief funding.

"We do it to project the upland infrastructure. If we don't do it, it costs a lot more after a major storm to come back fix the infrastructure, whether it's the roads, utilities, boardwalks or anything else," said Pallone, adding the funding was the result of a cost benefit analysis. "It's hard for people to believe that we save money in the federal government, but we actually do."

Officials previously told NJ Advance Media that the trouble spots in Deal had anywhere from no beach to strips of sand 20 feet wide. By the end of the work, all the beaches will be 100 feet wide.

 The Army Corps of Engineers also initially planned to notch six groins, or jetties, between Elberon and Loch Arbour.  However, due to concerns from fishermen, surfers and recreational users in the area, the Army Corps agreed to only notch three groins within the project area. 

The project also includes lengthening 10 existing stormwater outfalls.

Caldwell said preliminary work and staging for the final stage of the project would begin in the coming weeks, but that the actual pumping of sand would not begin until the spring and would continue through the summer.

"Obviously there will be some impacts to recreation during this period, but those impacts will be short term and would definitely be offset by the large increase in resiliency of the (beaches)," said Caldwell, adding that only small sections of the beaches in the work area would be closed at one time while the project is ongoing.

During the first phase of the project, pieces of WWI-era projectiles - known as boosters - were found in the sand on the newly replenished beaches .

"Public safety is and will always be the Corps of Engineers top priority. We'll be working closely with our contractor to minimize the potential impact of historic ordinance discovered during dredging operations like we saw in the first contract," Caldwell said. "If this happens again, we'll have the right measures in place to safely continue to dispose of any ordnance to avoid it being placed on any beaches during construction."

Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.


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