April 26, 2024
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A dredging project in Hereford Inlet will soon start off the coast of North Wildwood to replenish the city's beaches with sand ahead of the summer.
North Wildwood will receive a temporary fix for its shrinking beaches in the coming months after striking an agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The two sides had been in a legal standoff in recent years over how to defend the shoreline against some of the worst erosion in the state.
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello (R) said Thursday that a dredging project will begin in the coming weeks to start pumping sand from Hereford Inlet to the shoreline as a temporary bulwark against further erosion.
"The current plan will begin over the next few weeks and is expected to provide relief to the community over the next few months," Rosenello and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said in a joint statement.
The dire situation along North Wildwood's beachfront prompted local officials to place restrictions this summer on certain beach umbrellas, cabanas and tents to conserve limited space. Rosenello told the Press of Atlantic City that businesses in North Wildwood have gotten fewer bookings.
"There's an absolute economic impact to not having a beach," he said.
Officials have not yet said how much the upcoming project will cost and who will be paying for it.
In recent years, North Wildwood has regularly trucked in sand from neighboring Wildwood to replenish its beaches. The costly, short-term strategy has gotten harder to pull off due to a series of major storms that have further restricted the off-road paths used to transport the sand. The beaches between Third and Seventh avenues and 12th to 16th avenues have been among the hardest hit.
The city and NJDEP sued each other over disagreements about how to address the erosion with emergency repairs. North Wildwood officials argued the state was dragging its feet and stymying the city's efforts to take matters into its own hands. The state had argued that North Wildwood's wish to build a bulkhead could worsen erosion in the absence of a more comprehensive plan.
Last spring, NJDEP gave North Wildwood emergency approval to fix damaged beach entrances and reshape eroded sand dunes to prepare for the summer season at some of the city's busiest beaches.
Much of New Jersey's coastline was replenished in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012, but state and federal leaders with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working on a different dune project for Five Mile Beach. That stretch includes the Wildwoods and Diamond Beach in Lower Township.
In February, Rosenello said he was confident that the federal project will be able to move forward some time next year with a goal to provide 50 years of shore protection in the affected communities.
The project announced Thursday will be overseen by the New Jersey Department of Transportation's Office of Maritime Resources.
