Shore town receives award for innovative back bay dredging project

An engineering organization has honored a Cape May County municipality for an innovative back bay dredging project.

Avalon and its municipal engineering firm, Mott MacDonald, are the recipients of the New Jersey Society of Municipal Engineers’ 2017 Municipal Project of the Year honor.

“This project was complex and involved many challenges solved only by innovative solutions,” Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi said.

A cooperative project between the municipality, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Jersey departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation, and Middle Township, agreements were signed that resulted in the dredging of private boat slips along with the navigational channels.

Mott MacDonald devised a plan that built a small road, comprised of geogrid, stone, and sand, across a tidal marsh to empty dredged material belonging to Avalon, which was then taken to a processing site for beneficial use.

“As a result of all agencies and individuals working together for a common goal, the Borough of Avalon was able to implement a template for back bay dredging that is already being replicated in other coastal communities,” Municipal Engineer Thomas Thornton said.