Ocean City Ready to Truck More Sand to Protect South End

City Council on Thursday voted to advertise for bids from companies that can help haul sand from the healthy beaches on the north end of the island to the eroded beaches on the south end.

The sand would be hauled from "the beaches along the Great Egg Harbor Inlet and along the bay south of the Longport Bridge," according to a memo from City Engineer Arthur Chew to Business Administrator Mike Dattilo.

The sand would be moved to beaches south of 50th Street — particularly to a 1,000-foot stretch between 56th and 57th streets where the erosion is worst. The anticipated date to award the contract is Oct. 22, according to the resolution that passed unanimously.

Dattilo said the administration will bring to City Council a future resolution requesting bids from companies that can bring new sand from off the island.

At issue is a stretch of Ocean City beaches that were narrow even before Superstorm Sandy made landfall just north of Ocean City in October 2012. The storm flattened the dunes, buried streets in sand and flooded properties from beach to bay.

The area is authorized as part of a multimillion-dollar beach replenishment project paid for by the federal government. The Army Corps of Engineers would pump sand from an offshore "borrow area" to widen and elevate beaches (and create dunes) from 34th Street in Ocean City to Townsend's Inlet south of Sea Isle City.

But the Army Corps has not announced a date for the project to start, and south-end property owners are worried that new storms could wipe out the emergency berm constructed in spring 2013 with trucked-in sand and with sand that had been removed from the streets after Sandy.

At a recent coastal conference, an Army Corps official said he doesn't believe it is likely to that a south-end beach replenishment project could be completed in time for the start of the summer 2014 season (though he said it's conceivable that it could be started by then).

At Thursday's City Council meeting, Dattilo said correspondence with other members of the Army Corps still leads the city administration to have hope that the timetable could be more favorable.

Under any scenario, the remainder of the 2013 hurricane season and the start of the winter nor'easter season will pass without a federal beach-widening project.

The city will rely on trucked sand to rebuild the protective berm on the south end.

Dattilo said the city received a "significant credit" on a $1.1 million contract for the sand trucked in during the spring. The contract closed on Thursday, and beachgoers have complained that much of the sand is filled with rocks and debris.

Councilman Scott Ping and other council members pressed the administration for a more concrete timetable on when sand will be moved.