Dredging, beachfill project set for Cape May

Dredging and beachfill operations are set to begin in a portion of Cape May this fall, officials announced.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $7.6 million contract to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company of Oak Brook, Ill. to complete periodic beach nourishment.

The work, a joint project by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Army Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guard, involves the dredging of approximately 240,000 cubic yards of sand and pumping ashore.

Crews will acquire the sand from south of the Cape May Inlet jetties and pump onto a portion of the Coast Guard Training Center property and the area between Brooklyn Avenue and north/east of Wilmington Avenue in Cape May City.

90 percent of the funding is from the federal government, while New Jersey is covering the remainder.

The project is within the “Cape May Inlet to Lower Township” area, where the initial construction of a 25-high, 180-foot wide berm designed to reduce damage from coastal storms was completed in 1991.