The sound of sand being pumped onto a small beach on the Jersey shore causes a commotion. The sound is thunderous and constant.
That’s good news for the mayor.
“That’s an understatement,” North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello told NJ Advance Media on Thursday with a laugh. “To have a dredge offshore right now is the best thing I’ve seen on this beach in a long time, I think.”
North Wildwood will have more than 700,000 cubic yards, or more than 2 billion pounds, of sand laid over much of the beach by July 4, once a new emergency project is completed. The work, which began this week after progress was made earlier this spring, is being led by the state and could cost as much as $15 million, Rosenello said.
“The dry sand dike at high tide will be about 200 feet wide (at Seventh Street),” he said.
This comes four years after the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) first accused North Wildwood of beach construction without proper permits, after the city has been battling erosion for years.
North Wildwood says it was able to address beach erosion with smaller projects and trucking in sand from Wildwood until about two years ago. Officials have been fighting for emergency work for more than a year.
The emergency beach reclamation was ordered by Gov. Phil Murphy’s office after lobbying from Rosenero, Cumberland Republican Sen. Mike Testa and residents.
The North Wildwood Emergency Beach Remediation Dredging project is nearing completion, and the city, along with three other municipalities, awaits further progress on a larger beach replenishment effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
that An easement must be obtained for the property before the project can proceed.
“Behind the scenes work, including title searches, surveys and appraisal work, is ongoing,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Hajna said of the massive project in April. “The Department expects to receive the majority of the easements by this fall.”
Back-and-forth between the Jersey Shore town and state officials has escalated into an ongoing $33 million legal battle.
North Wildwood has long argued that the steel breakwaters it built at various points on the beach were necessary because severe erosion has caused 10 of the 36 blocks to be washed away at high tide, endangering homes and power lines. Rosenero stressed that the shrinking beach has led to beach closures and a temporary tent ban, but also threatens tourism revenue.
But state environmental regulators have said in the past that some of the physical structures the city built may have exacerbated erosion on a small stretch of beach.
Almost the entire beach
The New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Division of Marine Resources is leading the new emergency supply effort, contracting with H&L Contracting and Great Lakes Dredge & Dock.
State taxpayers will foot the bill for $10 million of the total cost, with North Wildwood covering up to $5 million. The final cost and amount of sand will depend on the scope of the project.
Contractors plan to pump sand to the beach at Seventh Street and then work their way south from there, bypassing the pier at Second Avenue and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, state Department of Transportation spokesman Jim Barry said Friday.
“Once this section is complete, contractors will return to Seventh Avenue and continue south,” Barry said, warning people in the area: “Safety is our number one priority. (Beachgoers) should stay away from all construction equipment, pipelines and alert areas.”
The mayor said roughly 1,000-foot sections of North Wildwood beach will be closed at a time while work continues, and signs will be posted to let visitors know construction is underway.
“Overall, I think the consensus here is that this project is something that has been needed for a long time and is a great asset to the community,” said PJ Hondros, who has lived in North Wildwood since 2020 but has been visiting since he was a toddler.
Hondros helps manage the social media pages. Track local beach conditionspreviously launched a petition drive calling for the state to do more on emergency beach repairs.
“Hundreds of people came out to see it finished,” he said Thursday evening, “and the only concern they’ve expressed is that it’s not going to last.”
Rosenero said pumping sand out of Wildwood, rather than bringing it back, could provide longer-lasting protection.
According to planning documents and the mayor, the sand will be spread from 2nd Avenue to 23rd Avenue. You can read the public notice here. About the design work here.
“This is basically our entire coastline,” Rosenero said, “but it doesn’t include the southernmost tip of our coast, because there’s private property there and we would have had to get an easement to get it, and we just didn’t have the time.”
Sand for the emergency work will be brought from Hereford Inlet, where sand has been accumulating over the years due to political and logistical reasons.
A large federal coastal project planned for the larger part of Cape May County (including Wildwood, Lower Township and Wildwood Crest) is scheduled to begin construction in the summer of 2025. It’s not clear exactly when those protections will benefit North Wildwood.
but, “Five Mile Island” Project A feasibility study was completed in 2014, but work was delayed as towns and landowners agreed to a massive plan that would cost more than $40 million and require more than 100 property easements before construction could begin.
Rosenero did not blanketly blame any specific agency or official Thursday for having to wait for the work, even though he has criticized the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Murphy in the past.
“Over the course of several years, (NJDEP) has invested significant time and resources into the design and coordination of the project. We have worked collectively and individually with each municipality to develop and enter into state assistance agreements; however, we have yet to receive a final agreement from Wildwood and Lower Township,” agency Director Sean LaTourette wrote to the mayors of the four towns in the project area in a February 2023 letter obtained by NJ Advance Media.
That same month, LaTourrette and the state secured consent from other towns for the coastal project, which was needed before officials could begin seeking rights of way on private property where construction would take place.
It’s unclear why some landowners initially didn’t agree to move forward with the project. Wildwood’s current mayor, Ernie Troiano, expressed concerns earlier this year about the possibility that new dunes could reduce beach access. He still has those concerns, but said the city supports the project for now.
The owners of Morey’s Pier in town had similar concerns about access to the boardwalk.
“The landowners raised several issues with the state assistance agreement and requested that the agreement be modified to address their concerns,” Lower Township Supervisor Michael Laffey said in an email Monday. Asked to comment on what those issues were, he referred further questions to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Local officials stressed that efforts have also been stepped up to begin replenishing sand in North Wildwood after the city was unable to obtain it from elsewhere and a harsh winter exacerbated the situation.
As for the legal battle between North Wildwood and the state, Rosenero said Thursday afternoon that a comprehensive settlement is currently being discussed.
He said his office was “actively engaged” in those talks and said he expected them to be completed by July, with an emergency replenishment.
