Jersey Shore Magazine

Jersey shore Beaches THE NEW BEACHFRONT, continued from page 61 Since the Superstorm, the Corps has had two primary objectives: to return the beaches to their pre-Sandy conditions and to improve their design to the "template" of the ideal beach. According to Paul S. Jalowski, the resident engineer for ongoing Corps projects north of the Manasquan Inlet, such an ideal beach has a berm—the sloping part of the beach, sites, located in about sixty feet of water, will be nine to thirteen feet deeper after the post-Sandy beach replenishment.) Herrington also noted that the sand eroded from the beaches tends to find its way into inlets and that this sand may be a future replenishment source, though it is presumed that it would be more costly to "borrow" from these sites. j e r s e y s h o r e • F a l l / H o l i d a y 2 0 1 3 Gordon Hesse The Coastal Research Amphibious Buggy (CRAB) prepares to take new survey readings from the dredging along the 2,000 feet of pipe at Monmouth Beach. The CRAB has a 35-foot platform and is powered by a 35-hp Volkswagen engine. In the background, the hopper dredge, Dodge Island, pumps and moves sand from the borrow site. 62 from the back of the beach and dunes to the waterline—that is at least 140 feet deep from the low tide mark. A beach built like this is expected to erode over time, creating shallows immediately offshore that will absorb and reduce the energy of storm surge waves. Beaches that had been replenished before Sandy fared better than those that were not, and property behind these replenished beaches experienced minimal damage. "We learned from Sandy that restored beaches were effective," said Dr. Thomas Herrington, Assistant Director at the Center for Maritime Systems at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Herrington did, however, express concerns that borrow sites would not be sustainable over the long term, and that if they were dug too deep, they could disrupt wave patterns. (It is estimated that two of the borrow The New Beachfront After the March 1962 Ash Wednesday nor'easter that devastated much of the east coast's shorefront, a dune configuration based on experimental results was designed by Joseph M. Caldwell, an Army Corps engineer. The "Caldwell Section" set the dune's slope at one foot vertical for every five feet horizontal with the dune's crest at a width of twenty-five feet. Although the designs will vary by location to take into account currents, beach structures, and sand quality, the new fourteen miles of engineered beachfront from Manasquan Inlet to just south of Seaside Park will be constructed with a dune cresting at twenty-two feet high above sea level along the entire beach. The dune will follow the design of the Caldwell Section and be twenty-five feet wide at the top with a slope down one foot every five feet forming a trapezoidal mound. The berm at the bottom of the dune will extend at least seventy-five feet seaward along the entire beach and will be constructed 8.5 feet above sea level at all locations except at northern Point Pleasant Beach where its elevation will be 11.5 feet. In locations with special structures, like the boardwalks at Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach, the berm will be even higher and longer—eighteen feet above sea level with its width extending one hundred feet seaward from the toe of the dune. The plan also includes planting 175 acres of dune grass on the new dunes, and approximately 200,000 feet of dune fencing will be required. Crossovers (stairs and platforms up, over, and down the new dunes) for beach access will be constructed at 247 existing locations, including handicap accesses at regular intervals. Eleven service vehicle dune crossovers will be constructed as well. The new beachfront will not only

• Cover