Thread: NJ approves plan to protect shore town with sea wall

NJ approves plan to protect shore town with sea wall

Susanne Cervenka, Asbury Park Press10:32 a.m. EDT August 29, 2014


(Photo: Asbury Park Press photo/Mary Frank )

SEA BRIGHT – Gaps in this Monmouth County shore town’s sea wall allowed massive waves from Superstorm Sandy to slam into the downtown district, swamping every business in feet of water and destroying two buildings.

Nearly two years after the storm, Sea Bright gained the commitment from Gov. Chris Christie for a $8.5 million improved and expanded sea wall to avoid such destruction in the future.

“Man-made structures are man-made structures, and nature is often a very difficult opponent in that regard,” he said Thursday during a visit here. The sea wall project, however, hopes to make sure “what this downtown looked like after the storm it never looks like that again.”

Christie and state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced the $8.5 million sea wall project and touted other statewide coastal resiliency projects at a press conference near the beach.

The project will reconstruct or build anew 600 feet of sea wall. The damaged portion of the sea wall will get larger stones for added protection.

The new section will create one continuous barrier that stands 20 feet above sea level.

Construction could be underway by next spring.

Sea Bright’s sea wall breached in three locations during Sandy, including the gap at the business district. The Borough Council and residents repeatedly identified the sea wall as a priority in the town’s recovery and have been in discussions with the Federal Emergency Management Agency since immediately after Sandy to get a commitment for funding.

This week’s announcement guarantees Sea Bright will get a sea wall protecting the business district regardless of FEMA’s final decision on funding.

Mayor Dina Long called the project “critically important for our future resiliency.”

“I’m personally thrilled DEP Commissioner Martin and Gov. Christie heard our pleas for help and worked so closely with us on this and other infrastructure projects,” she said.

The sea wall also will allow a Sea Bright business-backed project to give the borough a boardwalk to move ahead. Businesses of Sea Bright, an alliance of the local business owners, plans to raise funds and build a roughly one-mile boardwalk from Chapel Beach Club to Donovan’s Reef.

“The sea wall will protect us, and the boardwalk will bring people into town,” said Toni Pecoraro, whose real estate office was one of the downtown district businesses that flooded.

Christie said the state still has more to do to bring families back home, help businesses continue their recovery and bolster the state’s $40 billion tourism industry.

But he and Martin touted much of the work that already has done for future coastal protection projects. Those include eight Army Corps of Engineers beach replenishment projects from Sandy Hook to Manasquan that have been completed at a cost of $345 million, and 11 planned coastal restoration projects at a cost of $1 billion.

But Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club and a frequent Christie critic, panned the project, saying Christie should do more about rising sea levels and climate change.

“Sea walls do not work,” Tittel said. “They give false hope and (leave) people vulnerable for the next storm. ... We take millions of dollars and waste those funds on walls that will not work, will not protect people or property.”

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/story...wall/14795999/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/louisiana-s...g-fast-310149/