$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore

A $73.5 million beach replenishment project will kick off at the Jersey Shore next month.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that work to widen beaches in Ocean County will begin in January, the vanguard of a project that will pump 2.1 million cubic yards of sand onto the shoreline between the Manasquan Inlet and Seaside Park.

That’s the equivalent of 150,000 to 210,000 dump trucks full of sand.

The sand will be dredged from three offshore “borrow” sites and pumped onto beaches.

The work will begin in January in Seaside Heights and then into neighboring Seaside Park through February, with 241,000 cubic yards of sand brought ashore.

The southern portion of Toms River will see work begin in February and March, with 426,000 cubic yards, and Lavallette will get 184,000 cubic yards in March.

Bay Head and Point Pleasant Beach will see beach replenishment work begin sometime in spring, depending on weather conditions and the progress of earlier work. Those towns will get 495,000 cubic yards.

Mantoloking, one of the hardest-hit shore communities during Superstorm Sandy, will get 392,000 cubic yards in the spring, while neighboring Brick will get 227,000 cubic yards in early summer.

The northern part of Toms River will get 135,000 cubic yards sometime during the summer.

The Army Corps awarded a contract for the work in October to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Houston.

In some areas, dunes, beach access paths and sand fencing will be repaired, and dune grass will be planted.