North Wildwood’s $17 Million Beach Replenishment Details
The State of New Jersey has finally answered our call to get a Beach replenishment project underway in North Wildwood.
It’s no secret that for the past 12 months, we have made 10 videos and had written 12 articles on how the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection was not helping to find a solution to our beach erosion problem.
North Wildwood’s $17 Million Beach Replenishment Details
The erosion had gotten so bad that projects like back-passing were not possible. Back-passing is when trucks would scrape sand from Wildwood and dump it back to North Wildwood.
Erosion has caused the water to hit up against Surfside and Sportland Pier creating no space for the trucks to move.
After a few storms, much of the remaining sand dunes started to fail causing a waiting game of what could have been a horrible situation.
That has all changed thanks in part to North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello, who has been working relentless on getting something approved. His hard work has paid off!
In a statement released on April 26th, Governor Phil Murphy & Mayor Patrick Rosenello announced “that, through collaboration and bipartisan partnership, the State and town of North Wildwood have determined an interim solution to address beach replenishment in North Wildwood.”
Today we got more information on the project thanks to an interview Rosenello did with Fox 29’s Bob Kelly.
In the interview, Rosenello said that the Governor’s office had reached out to help solve the situation here in North Wildwood. The Governor assigned the project to the New Jersey Department of Transportation Office of Maritime Resources.
This is a very different office then the New Jersey DEP, which usually does dredging and beach replenishment operations.
Also See: Ocean Bay Coastal Grille & Bar Coming to North Wildwood
Governor Murphy had declared this an emergency and allocated $10 Million to do this project, in which the city of North Wildwood could contribute up to an additional $7 Million making the total project worth $17 Million.
One thing to keep in mind, this doesn’t mean they will use the full $17 Million. They could, depending on how much they need, only need $15 Million for the project.
The project will dredge sand from the Hereford Inlet and place it on most of the North Wildwood Beaches.
The dredge will grab a slurry of sand, 70% sand, and 30% water, and push it through a 30-inch wide pipe onto the beach. This pump will be pumping 24/7 to get the project done.
This slurry sand it much better than the beach sand used in the back-passing since it is wet and more compact vs the soft beach sand.
As sand is being pumped on to the beach, trucks will be moving the sand to a smooth grade.
How much of the beach will get this replenishment?
Rosenello says “As far as the money can take us and as fast as that dredge can pump sand, we are going to go down as far South as we can with this project.”
Ultimately they want to get 17 Street but will start at 2nd and JFK Boulevard and move South.
Equipment will start to show up in the next couple of weeks with a goal of being finished by the July 4th weekend.
Some parts of the beach will be closed during this major operation but Rosenello puts it, “In the big picture, getting the beach back in North Wildwood is a huge benefit.”
The North Wildwood Facebook page will be bringing regular updates on the project so be sure to follow them.
The Wildwood Video Archive will be stopping by to film some pre-beach replenishment videos so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel (plus we are trying to hit 100,000 subscribers).