Army Corps Beach Replenishment Likely Won't Happen In 2016, Brick Mayor Says

BRICK, NJ -- The beach replenishment/dune project in the works for the beachfront from Manasquan Inlet to Island Beach State Park most likely won’t be started in time for the 2016 hurricane season, Brick Mayor John Ducey said Tuesday night.

Ducey gave an update at the Township Council meeting on efforts to get easements signed in the township to allow the Army Corps of Engineers access to construct the dune project, which is designed to offer protection to the coast in future storms.

In Brick, there are three easements that still have not been signed. Two of them are individual property owners and one is the Deauville Beach Club, Ducey said. Those easements, along with unsigned easements in Toms River, Bay Head and Point Pleasant Beach, continue to hold up the project, which Army Corps officials had hoped to put out to bid this spring.

Ducey said the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is a partner on the project, is moving forward with eminent domain proceedings. So far, 22 have been filed, Ducey said, and appraisals are under way on other properties. But that process will take time to move through the courts, he said.

The DEP is trying to get the beach associations to sign the easements that have been written for their groups -- a development that occurred after the Army Corps said side agreements Toms River had written for its beach associations were problematic -- but that more than 10 remain unsigned in Toms River, Ducey said.

Ducey also said the state had warned beach associations that the money designated for the project could be at risk if the delays continue, citing a Fire Island beach replenishment project that is “shovel ready.”

Ed Voigt, public affairs officer for the Philadelphia district of the Army Corps, clarified that information, however, saying the money designated for the Ocean County project will not be affected by the Fire Island project.

“It’s just a matter of sequence,” Voigt said. ”The money is Sandy money and will be there.”

Voigt said the easement and eminent domain issue is the more tricky matter. A court decision is expected soon on the issue of eminent domain proceedings in Margate, he said, and the Army Corps is hopeful that decision will help but a pending court decision on Margate’s eminent domain actions should give some sense of the court’s stance on the issue.

In Margate, the state has filed 87 eminent domain cases, which the town is resisting because it says its existing bulkhead provides the needed protection for its town and residents.

More than 300 easements remain unsigned in the state, Voigt said.

“We’re ready to get going,” Voigt said, as soon as the access for Ocean County project is in place.

(The steel revetment wall that was put in place to protect Route 35 remains the only protection for property in Brick from storms. Missing easements and eminent domain actions continue to delay the Army Corps dune project. Photo credit: Steven Erb)