Major Post-Sandy Beach Replenishment Coming to Monmouth Beach, Sea Bright

By Elaine Van Develde

The Hurricane Sandy-obliterated Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach beaches are getting more sand by the end of the month — 2.5 million cubic yards of it.

A contract was awarded on Wednesday to the Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredging and Dock Company, LLC for the two-town $25,590,800 slice of a major $102 million replenishment project spanning the shore from the borough to Manasquan, according to a release from Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). 

"Unfortunately, Sandy made the conditions of some of our beaches go from bad to worse," Pallone said. "But once this project is complete, our beaches will be replenished and wider than they were even before the storm." 

With Sandy, the Sea Bright beach spilled onto all of Ocean Avenue, blanketing it. For months, crews worked to collect and pile it into what was dubbed Mount Sandy — a giant mountain of sand that completely blocked of the sightline to the Atlantic ocean. 

It was only about a month ago that Mount Sandy was filtered and spread back onto the Sea Bright beach. The borough had undergone a replenishment project that was planned pre-Sandy in the winter. It ended up serving as a kiddie band-aid on a full-grown beach wound. The beach was wiped out again with the nor'easter that followed that project.
 
The impending 175-day Sea Bright-Monmouth Beach project is the first of a four-phase contract to be supervised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which handles all federally-funded beach replenishment projects. 

The project will be then broken down into the following chunks in locale: Belmar to Manasquan, Long Branch, and Asbury to Avon, the release added. Those remaining contracts will be awarded in July. 

The entire shore project, touted as the largest of its kind in New Jersey history, is slated for completion by the end of next year.

"The Army Corps of Engineers is excited to award this contract for emergency beach replenishment in Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach which will mitigate the impacts of future storms big and small," New York District Commander Col. Paul E. Owen said in the release. "We hope that in addition to providing beach erosion control and storm risk reduction that this work also help the region heal by restoring an important and central element to these coastal communities."