Ocean City Pols Approve Geotube Funding For Heavily Eroded Beach

OCEAN CITY, NJ — City Council approved funding Thursday to install geotubes at a beach that heavily eroded during Subtropical Storm Melissa. Geotubes are giant cylindrical structures made of plastic fabric and stuffed with sand, buried by more sand and dune grass.

The City would install geotubes in the beaches around 5th Street. The beaches from 5th to 7th Street suffered "total dune loss" during Subtropical Storm Melissa earlier this month, according to a state report. Even though it didn't rain, the coastal flooding affected much of Ocean City. Read more: Damages At Ocean City Beaches From Subtropical Storm

"The Melissa storm put waves going under the 500 block to the Boardwalk," Ocean City Finance Director Frank Donato said at Thursday's City Council meeting. "So we’re trying to get the permits for those as quickly as we can to maybe piggyback off the Army Corps project while they’re out there."

The expense is listed at $3 million, which would come out of the City's Capital Improvement Fund.

City officials hope the project can be carried out during the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers's beach replenishment project in the area. The Army Corps awarded $32.5 million for a project to replenish beaches in Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Strathmere. Read more: Ocean City, Nearby Beaches To Get $32.5M Widening

Mayor Jay Gillian said Ocean City expects the Army Corps to agree to add the locally funded geotubes to the project. But either way, officials say the project will be carried out.

"We’re going to do it. We’re just trying to do it before they blow it all up with sand again," Gillian said.

Geotubes were installed in 2009 at Ocean City's Waverly Beach.

"They were the only thing that saved many north-end properties during Superstorm Sandy in 2012," Gillian said.

Watch the full City Council meeting below:

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