Avalon awards contract for beach replenishment

AVALON, N.J. - Residents of Avalon and visitors to the borough should expect to begin hearing the sounds of dredging early next month as a $6.3 million beach-replenishment project gets underway.

The work on the borough's north-end beaches is expected to be completed by the Fourth of July, and it will cost far less than initially anticipated, officials said.

Under the contract Avalon Borough Council unanimously awarded last week to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. L.L.C. of Oak Brook, Ill., 700,000 cubic yards of sand will be pumped from Eighth Street south to

26th Street, according to Mayor Martin Pagliughi.

The firm is the same one that has been hired for a $57.6 million beach project in the neighboring Cape May County towns of Ocean City, Strathmere in Upper Township, and Sea Isle City.

"This is fantastic news for Avalon in advance of the tourist season," Pagliughi said.

He said Great Lakes had performed outstanding work in Avalon in earlier beach-maintenance projects, and "this contract will ensure that we have both protective and recreational beaches in 2015."

Borough Council had authorized a $12 million bond for the project but Great Lakes' bid came in approximately $5.7 million under that amount because the company already has equipment in the area, reducing logistical costs.

As a result, the price per cubic yard of sand went down from $5.10 to $2.03, officials said.

That allowed the borough to authorize three additional bid items within the project that would help restore the beaches to a "template" from the Army Corps of Engineers, Pagliughi said. The template would create the best protective barrier for the strand, he said.

Officials said the borough's engineering firm, Hatch Mott MacDonald, was conducting hydrographic surveys that would enable Great Lakes to apply precise amounts of sand.

The project is likely to begin in early May, although a date had not been selected.

The dredging operation, which will pull sand from a site about a mile offshore, will run around the clock seven days a week. The work will stop only for mechanical or weather-related issues, officials said.

The work will proceed north to south, and two or three blocks of the beach at a time will be closed to the public.

Beach-access paths between 10th and 17th Streets and 23d and 25th Streets are currently closed because of severe erosion. As sand is replaced and the beaches are repaired, those sections will reopen to the public, Pagliughi said.

The project will be Avalon's first major beach fill since March 2013, when emergency repairs were made five months after Hurricane Sandy hit.

Pagliughi said the borough would keep residents and visitors informed about the project via Avalon's official website at www.avalonboro.net; through the borough's Facebook page; and on ShoreTV Comcast Channel 97, a local channel for Avalon, Stone Harbor, and Sea Isle City.

Source: Philly.com