Avalon Beaches

Avalon works against time and tide to fix beaches
By BRIAN IANIERIStaff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, January 28, 2006
Updated: Saturday, January 28, 2006

Borough officials are preparing a back-up plan to stock eroding beaches before the tourist season after learning that dredging — the most practical option — might not be available.

Engineer Tom Thornton, of the firm Hatch Mott MacDonald, said the borough may buy sand from local gravel pits and truck it to the beaches if Avalon cannot find a dredging company willing to take the project.

Avalon is seeking approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection for the trucking project, Thornton said.

Trucking could produce 180,000 cubic yards of sand between Ninth and 18th streets, the most heavily eroded on Avalon's coastline.

Currently, most beach access there is closed because encroaching saltwater chewed steep cliffs in the dunes.

Avalon had budgeted about $3 million for an emergency beach fill but could not find a dredging company that would take the job.

Next week, Avalon is scheduled to negotiate with two dredging companies and determine whether the companies will take the project and for how much.

“We need to do something on the beach. If it takes trucking in sand, by God that's what we need to do,” said borough Councilman David Ellenberg. “The renters are coming here over the summer to use our beaches. That is the infrastructure we have to deal with at this point. It's all part of economic development.”

Avalon has authorized spending almost $390,000 for backpassing — shifting sand from elsewhere in Avalon to the depleted northern end.

But the two methods would deliver less sand than dredging and would be more expensive per cubic yard.

Together, the two projects could deliver as much as 240,000 cubic yards of sand, about two-thirds of what the dredging would deliver, Thornton said.

Either dredging or trucking sand could begin sometime in February, Thornton said.

Ellenberg said he hopes the borough can negotiate with a dredging company to take on the project.

Avalon is working with a tight timetable, though.

The project would likely need to be finished by the end of March due to nesting season for the endangered piping plovers.