North Wildwood Beach Replenishment Underway! – Drone Footage
The North Wildwood beach nourishment dredging project is officially underway!
On Wednesday night, crews initiated equipment tests, and since then, the dredge has been actively pumping sand onto the North Wildwood beaches.
The Wildwood Video Archive visited the project on its first day, capturing aerial footage and providing a quick tour. You can watch their video at the bottom of this article.
This project has been years in the making, as North Wildwood’s shoreline has suffered significant erosion from storms.
The erosion was so severe that trucks couldn’t access the beach for replenishments, prompting Mayor Patrick Rosenello to take action to protect the city and public property.
Due to the lack of beach space, the city banned beach tents and cabanas to ensure visitors had enough room to lay out.
Last month, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, along with Mayor Rosenello, announced a new project under the Department of Transportation’s marine division to dredge sand from just offshore onto the beaches.
This dredging area called the borrow area, is separate from Hereford Inlet, which hasn’t been dredged for a considerable time.
Last Friday, Governor Murphy, Mayor Rosenello, and N.J. Senator Michael Testa visited the site for a tour and project update.
Crews are making rapid progress, building approximately one block of beach each day. In this context, a block is defined as a 200-foot by 100-foot area of sand.
The sand pumping operation began at 7th Avenue, moving from south to north, and will curve around the jetty at 2nd Avenue and John F. Kennedy Blvd.
After completing this section, contractors will return to 7th Avenue and proceed southward.
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The project is divided into two phases: Phase 1 (from the front to 7th Avenue) and Phase 2 (from 7th Avenue onward). Phase 2 does not have a defined endpoint due to variables like funding, time, and location.
The state of New Jersey is contributing $10 million to this project, with North Wildwood providing up to an additional $7 million as needed.
This extra funding will enable contractors to continue moving southward until they reach their target or exhaust the available resources and time.
During this period, sections of the beaches will be closed to accommodate the project, which is expected to continue until the 4th of July weekend.
For daily updates on the project and to see which beaches will be closed, the city will post on its Facebook page.
North Wildwood Beaches 2024
As a reminder, this project is very different than the island-wide project which could be started sometime next year.
That project will see an installation of a 16-foot-tall dune across the entire island and will bring more sand to the North Wildwood beaches.
In the video below, the Wildwood Video Archive captured footage of crews pumping sand onto 7th Avenue and provided a look at the dredge. Before watching the video, we invite you to subscribe to our channel as we aim for 100,000 subscribers—only 6,500 to go!