Ortley Beach Fill Progressing; Seaside Park Work To Start Soon

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Army Corps of Engineers continues to make progress on its $128 million beach replenishment and dune construction project.

Toms River Township Engineer Robert Chankalian posted a new video of the work in Ortley Beach over the weekend. The Harding Avenue entrance reopened on Sunday, and Weeks Marine, the contractor on the project, continues to pump sand.

The work in Ortley Beach is expected to take until October, according to the current Army Corps timeline posted online.

You can see Chankalian's video here.

To the south, preparations have begun to start pumping sand onto the beach in Seaside Park, angering residents and beachgoers in that town over the timing of the work — timing that was announced in late Ferbruary and sharply criticized by local officials up and down the area because of concerns about the tourism impact.

The long-awaited project was supposed to have been completed last November, but legal wrangling with private property owners, mechanical issues and bad storms delayed the work repeatedly.

The work closes 1,000 feet of beachfront at a time, so portions of the beach remain open while the work is underway.

The work in Seaside Park is set to start near 5th Avenue and move north, then flip and do the southern portion of the beach, with the South Seaside Park portion of Berkeley Township following that work.

The Army Corps project information can be found here.

Photo via video by Toms River Township Engineer Robert Chankalian