Avalon’s North End Beach Fill Works Complete Ahead of Schedule

The 2017 Avalon beach fill project will finish ahead of schedule and be completed in advance of Memorial Day weekend.

According to Avalon Borough, nearly one million cubic yards of sand has been placed on the north Avalon beachfront in advance of Memorial Day weekend, and hurricane season which begins on June 1st.

This $7.9 million beach nourishment project, one of the largest in Avalon, was financed largely with federal and state funding.

“We are grateful to the Army Corps of Engineers, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and our neighbors in Stone Harbor for participating in this major capital improvement project that has saved municipal taxpayers several million dollars courtesy of our proactive approach to restoring the beaches,” said Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi.

During the weekly project meeting held on Thursday, May 18th, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company announced that only 8,000 cubic yards of sand remained to be placed on Avalon’s north end beaches.

This resulted in a total of 944,000 cubic yards of sand placed between the 9th Street and 30th Street beaches in Avalon as the work concluded during the afternoon hours of May 18th.

During the early morning hours of May 19th, work began in front of the hotel district from 77th Street to 80th Street, along with the northerly limits of Stone Harbor. This additional volume in front of the hotel district will take approximately two and a half days to complete.

Shortly after, in the mid-morning hours, GLDD reported a mechanical failure on the dredge “Texas” that results in the dredge being moved from Townsend’s Inlet to Cape May for repairs; those repairs will take about a week to complete.

The beach project in southern Avalon and northern Stone Harbor will use a submerged pipeline that will be in the Atlantic Ocean pumping sand from the dredge “Texas” to the landing zone at Stone Harbor’s 84th Street beach.

There will be approximately two blocks of beach closed in each direction as sand is pumped onto the southerly three blocks of beach front in Avalon as a 1,000 foot safety zone is required. The pipeline that exists on the beach in northern Avalon will be removed from the beach by GLDD via the 32nd Street beach path.

The final phase of the beach project will consist of 305,000 cubic yards of sand to be placed in southern Avalon and northern Stone Harbor. The project will operate 24 hours and will only stop due to unsafe weather conditions or mechanical failure.

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