Seawall Construction Starts September In Monmouth Beach

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By Jay Cook |
MONMOUTH BEACH – Borough residents will notice a significant amount of work along Ocean Avenue this fall as work to plug a well-known seawall gap and additional construction commences.
In an Aug. 2 letter, Mayor Sue Howard said the project is set to begin Sept. 10. Monmouth Beach’s existing seawall along the oceanfront will be bolstered and a nearly 700-foot gap at the Monmouth Beach Bathing Pavilion (MBBP) will be filled.
Howard said this project will create a “unified, contiguous shore protection structure throughout (Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach) which acts as the last line of defense from the Atlantic Ocean.”
The Monmouth Beach work is the second phase of the Sea Bright & Monmouth Beach Seawall Repair and Construction Project being administered by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Division of Coastal Engineering. Priced at nearly $30 million, it will be paid for by a 90/10 cost share between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the DEP. Monmouth Beach’s taxpayers will bear no cost for this project.
The first phase in Sea Bright is nearing completion, Howard said.
Here is a scope of the project, provided by Monmouth Beach and the DEP:
• At MBBP, a new stone seawall will fill the existing gap along the recreational beachfront. A crossover ramp on the northern end of the MBBP’s parking lot will be built for authorized vehicles and pedestrians to scale the new seawall. The existing crossover at the parking lot’s southern end will go over the new wall. Additionally, access structures will be built from the wall in front of the Pavilion.
• About 25 feet of wooden bulkhead and stone filling will be removed for the Admiralty condominium’s parking garage.
• Select sidewalks along Route 36/Ocean Avenue will be repaired.
• Some areas along the seawall south of MBBP will be repaired where “large voids” have formed.
It will be all hands on deck for the contracting company, J. Fletcher Creamer & Son, Inc., when Sept. 10 arrives. Staging in the MBBP parking lot and on the beach will begin at that time. The DEP anticipates about 1,600 truckloads of stone deliveries from Ocean Avenue throughout the next few months. Stone deliveries could begin as early as 6 a.m. and work could extend past normal business hours and into Saturdays throughout the fall and winter.
All public beach access in front of and adjacent to MBBP will be strictly prohibited during construction. However, members will be permitted to park at the southern end of the parking lot and access the MBBP’s rear deck. No one will be allowed on the beaches at any time.
Residents seeking any more information can visit the borough website, monmouthbeach.org, or contact the project engineer, Rob VonBriel, at 732-255-0871 or robert.vonbriel@dep.nj.gov.


This article was first published in the August 9-16, 2018 print edition of The Two River Times.