Ortley Beach erosion repairs will cost $244K. When will they be finished?
TOMS RIVER -- Repairing erosion caused by a nor'easter in Ortley Beach will cost more than $240,000, and the work is not expected to be finished until late June.
The Township Council approved hiring Burlington County-based Vulcan Construction Group to repair Ortley Beach's dunes at a cost of $244,250 Tuesday evening. Township Administrator Lou Amoruso said the work, which will include trucking in sand, is expected to take 18 days.
"It has to be completed by June 24," Amoruso said of a provision in the agreement with Vulcan.
A nor'easter over the first weekend in May gouged the dunes between Fourth and Eighth avenues, an area where the beach juts out a bit farther east than other sections of Ortley, Township Engineer Robert J. Chankalian has said. The force of the waves produced cliffs that drop several feet to the beach, particularly between Sixth and Seventh avenues, where Joey Harrison's Surf Club formerly stood.
The beaches will be open this weekend but some access points won't be available.
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Ortley Beach and Bay Head saw severe erosion last year during a strong nor'easter that raked the coastline during five high tide cycles in late January and early February.
Following that storm, Toms River paid Earle Asphalt more than $430,000 to truck in sand and spread it on the beach in Ortley last May, only to have some of the repaired areas eroded again during a fierce Memorial Day weekend nor'easter. Watch the beach repair operation in the video above.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to return to northern Ocean County's barrier island this year to renourish beaches that were widened as part of a $128 million project that the corps completed in 2019.
As part of the project, the corps agreed to come back to the area periodically for 50 years, to make repairs to sections of the shoreline that have proven particularly vulnerable, including Ortley Beach.
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The renourishment work is not expected to begin before fall.
About $30 million in funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill has been set aside to pay for the repairs, but that represents only about 50% of the cost of the work. The state and local municipalities will have to make up the rest, and Mayor Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr. said the township believes Toms River's share of the project is likely to be about $2 million.
Hill said he has urged Gov. Phil Murphy to have the state pick up the entire tab for the beachfront work. "Everybody in the state uses the beaches," the mayor said.
Ortley Beach, the only oceanfront beach operated by the township, opens this weekend for Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the Jersey Shore's summer tourist season. Lifeguards will be present this weekend and on weekends only until June 18.
After that date, lifeguards will be on the beach daily through Labor Day.
Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 37 years. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ortley Beach NJ erosion repairs won't be finished until late June
