Are North Wildwood’s Beaches Gone Forever?

Are North Wildwood’s Beaches Gone Forever?

With all the videos and photos showcasing a destroyed North Wildwood beach, it has visitors wondering if North Wildwood’s beaches are gone forever.

It’s no secret that the Jersey Shore towns have been seeing an increase in beach erosion. Over the past 20 years, the coast has seen a ton of change.

During the ’90s, certain stretches of the North Wildwood beaches were so expansive that locals humorously suggested you’d require a truck to reach the water—a sentiment echoed by present-day Wildwood residents.

Considering the current state of the beach, it’s challenging to fathom, but North Wildwood’s beaches were once more extensive than those of Wildwood. This is evident in the recollections of residents who remember a time when the back of piers nestled in the ocean.

The accumulation of sand in North Wildwood resulted from deposits that originally occupied shore towns just north of the city. As erosion gradually eroded their beaches, the displaced sand found its way to our shores, contributing to their expansion. Additionally, the dredging of the Hereford Inlet played a role in maintaining the length of the beaches.

Changes in ocean currents and the impact of major storms accelerate the movement of sand along our shores. Over several decades, this substantial volume of sand in North Wildwood migrated southward, effectively enlarging the beaches of Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.

Following Hurricane Sandy, Cape May County sought assistance from the US Army Corps of Engineers to assess the potential erosion and storm damage for municipalities on Five Mile Island.

The Hereford Inlet to Cape May General Investigation was initiated under the authority of The New Jersey Shore Protection Study, as mandated by resolutions within the Committee on Public Works and Transportation of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the U.S. Senate.

The project encompasses North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Lower Township—communities susceptible to year-round vulnerability from storm damage caused by hurricanes and nor’easters. The project’s focus is specifically on the beachfront, featuring a tapered design at the southern and northern ends near Hereford Inlet and the USFW/Coast Guard properties. The Non-Federal sponsor for the project is the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

The proposed project included the installation of 64 acres of dune grass, 28,000 linear feet of sand fence, and 44 extended crossovers.

The investigation highlighted North Wildwood’s struggle with substantial erosion of its berm and dune, resulting in the loss of approximately 1,000 feet of beach over the past 5-10 years.

The heightened threats of tidal flooding and increased wave run-up now pose challenges to public and city services on what was once the largest beach in the state

Simultaneously, the report addressed the challenges faced by Wildwood and Wildwood Crest due to sand accretion, leading to maintenance issues and health hazards in their stormwater management system. The surplus sand gave rise to clogs, stagnant water pools, adverse beach conditions, and interior flooding during heavy rain and high waves.

Also See: North Wildwood’s Gateway Entrance and Gold Star Families Memorial Moves Forward

Design plans were announced in 2017 that would create a comprehensive berm and dune system along the Atlantic oceanfront for North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Lower Township.

The projected project would span approximately 25,000 linear feet, featuring a berm with varying widths at elevation 6.5 feet NAVD88 and a dune with a crest elevation of 16 feet NAVD88 along its entire length.

To achieve this, the project proposes backpassing sand from areas in Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.

The term “backpassing” implies that sand is moved backward from areas where it has naturally accumulated in excess to those where it is needed. In the context of the Hereford Inlet to Cape May General Investigation project, backpassing technology is done by scrapping the sand near the water in Wildwood and dumping it back to where it is needed.

Fast forwarding to 2024, and many would assume that the Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet project would have been scrapped but it hasn’t.

This extensive initiative faced numerous delays, with no visible start date in sight during that period.

In the interim, North Wildwood found itself engaged in an ongoing battle with Mother Nature, and unfortunately, not emerging victorious. Since the project had been on the table since 2013, the city had resorted to implementing temporary solutions in the hope of sustaining itself until the project’s commencement. However, due to persistent delays, these measures evolved into more permanent fixtures.

This is where the conflict between the city of North Wildwood and the New Jersey DEP comes to the forefront.

As sand and water encroached upon the streets of North Wildwood, the city had to install extensive bulkheads to withstand the forces of Mother Nature. Each storm that battered North Wildwood eroded the beach, leaving only small dunes to safeguard shore houses and city infrastructure.

To protect against this onslaught, the city began investing its funds to construct bulkheads and enhance beach replenishment as a recurring annual activity, all undertaken with the understanding that the major project would eventually come to fruition.

Also See: Sports Complex Moves Forward at Cape May County Airport

Tensions between North Wildwood and NJ DEP heightened in December, reaching a point where the NJ DEP took legal action by filing a lawsuit to block town leaders from installing several more blocks of steel bulkheads.

This bulkhead was to extend the bulkhead from 12th Street over to 16th Street.

In the extensive 500-page complaint, the agency argued that the proposed work was labeled “illegal,” emphasizing the absence of an “imminent or ongoing threat” to lives or property.

Persisting in its position, the state maintained that the construction of the bulkhead would cause “permanent and irreparable harm” to vegetated dunes between 12th and 16th streets. Consequently, the project abruptly halted in the spring of 2023, resulting in all the bulkhead material stranded on the beach at 16th Street.

In response, the town retaliated by pursuing a reimbursement of $21 million. This sought to cover purported expenses incurred in recent years on primarily unsuccessful attempts to fortify its beach.

Simultaneously, state regulators imposed fines exceeding $8.5 million on North Wildwood for its history of “unauthorized actions” along the beachfront.

Amidst these developments, certain storms inflicted severe damage to the dunes between 12th and 16th streets, rendering them insufficient to withstand the force of the ocean. In response, the city urgently sought approval for the emergency construction of a bulkhead in front of the existing North Wildwood lifeguard station to prevent its destruction.

Also See: North Wildwood’s Future Bulkhead 2024

While the state approved this specific bulkhead, they maintained their stance against extending it down to 12th Avenue.

However, in the recent week, storms breached the dunes between 12th and 15th streets, prompting the city to once again petition the NJ DEP for emergency approval to construct the original bulkhead they had requested the previous year.

This new bulkhead would connect the existing bulkhead at 12th Street to the one at 15th Street.

Should this new bulkhead receive approval, it will be constructed with a different perspective and approach.

According to the commissioner of the NJ DEP, Shawn LaTourette, the state had secured all necessary agreements from all the municipalities on the barrier island, and so now the project can move forward.

The project is estimated to cost up to $30 million and could start as soon as late 2025.

That still unfortunately leaves North Wildwood vulnerable to Mother Nature until the backpass and dune system can be built.

So are North Wildwood’s beaches gone forever, no.

While the “Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet Coastal Storm Risk Management” project is mostly to build the bulkhead/dune system/protected berm, this is just the first step in rebuilding the beaches.

Once the project is done, North Wildwood could see other potential major projects such as dredging, back-passing, and other options to grow its beaches even larger.

One thing to keep in mind is that the coastline is always changing. All it takes is one giant storm to pound the towns just North of the island to see a large deposit of sand back on the five-mile island.

North Wildwood’s beaches have a history of growing larger. As seen in the original map of North Wildwood in the early 1900s, the streets, Surf Ave, Ocean Ave, and JFK Beach Drive didn’t exist. As the beaches grew so did the city.

The North Wildwood beaches will be here to stay but first, they just need to weather the storms.

To learn about the lost streets of North Wildwood, watch the video below (and be sure to subscribe).