North Wildwood Looks To Connect Bulkheads

North Wildwood has been extremely lucky for these past few weeks. Major storms have been hitting the island for the past few weeks but have done so in a way that hasn’t caused much damage.

Some minor damage has occurred due to erosion, but isn’t as bad as it could have been if it wasn’t for one thing, low tide.

While these storms that have hit the area have been bad enough to cause the Governor of New Jersey to declare a state of emergency since these storms hit during low tides the destruction of property was avoided.

Despite their fortunate streak, which extends to the imminent weekend storm, there’s an awareness that luck’s favor may eventually wane. In response to this realization, Mayor Patrick Rosenello of North Wildwood is now actively pursuing the completion of the remaining sections of the North Wildwood bulkhead system.

This bulkhead system was supposed to run from 3rd and JFK Boulevard up to 16th Street but the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said that a bulkhead between 13th Street and 14th Street would endanger its own dunes.

North Wildwood Looks To Connect Bulkheads

After seeing much erosion from these passing storms around 13th Street, Mayor Rosenello has decided to ask the state to approve the completion of the bulkhead.

On Thursday, January 11th, Mayor Rosenello formally submitted an application to the NJ DEP with the hopes that they would approve the application.

During this past storm, DEP officials were in North Wildwood to observe how much erosion had taken place.

While they haven’t publicly commented on the matter yet, those officials were observed taking photos of the said section that Mayor Rosenello wants to connect the bulkhead.

This project would be very different then other projects because the city already has the bulkhead material sitting on the beach. As soon as the city gets the green light, they are able to get construction underway.

If a new bulkhead isn’t constructed then there could be a bigger problem.

This year, for the second year in a row, North Wildwood will not be getting a beach replenishment.

This is due to the same issues that were presented last year. In order to move sand from Wildwood to North Wildwood, trucks would have to cross in front of Morey’s Surfside Pier and Sportland Pier.

While in the past this section between the ocean and piers would be destroyed once or twice a month, due to erosion it happens almost twice a day.

Crews would be spending more time rebuilding this access point daily than moving sand, which is why the Spring 2024 beach replenishment is paused.