NORTH WILDWOOD – As can sometimes happen on barrier islands, one storm hits while you are still in the process of making repairs from the previous storm.
Mayor Patrick Rosenello said his community was still dealing with the effects of an August storm – Hurricane Erin – when the Oct. 12-13 nor’easter blasted an area of beach where sand was placed in the spring 2024.
“They placed 800,000 cubic yards of sand there, and I would guess a third is not there anymore,” Rosenello said, referring to a major beach replenishment project executed by the state department of Transportation at the urging of Gov. Phil Murphy.
A key factor, the mayor said, is that the project included dredging sand from the ocean floor as opposed to trucking dry sand from other areas. He feels the dredged sand holds better, sticks around longer and creates a nice slope out in the water.
“Every part of the dredged sand is better than dry sand hauled by truck,” he said.
Rosenello said the day the 2024 project was completed the sand was “packed down” and holding.
“Even when it eroded it didn’t seem like it was that bad,” he said.
The mayor said that, historically, when North Wildwood had some of the widest beaches on the East Coast, the widest point was around Seventh through Ninth streets. He said the city has seen a significant amount of natural accretion in that same location in just the last year or two. He said sand bars drift out of Hereford Inlet, and one has attached itself to that beach.
“That beach grows and shrinks,” Rosenello said. “That beach was once on Surf Avenue.” Surf Avenue is one city block east of JFK Boulevard, which runs along the beachfront.
He said the city is due for an accretion event between Seventh and Ninth streets, and he believes if that develops a natural beach should form around the Second Street area. He said until that natural accretion occurs it will be very difficult to hold sand in that area.
One beach project that will go ahead is the extension of North Wildwood’s seawall from Second to Seventh Street. “There is recognition that a hard structure is only thing that will provide protection for the long term,” the mayor said.
While the Seventh to Ninth street beach area is one of the most dynamic areas as far as sand coming and going, the worst area of storm damage was between 13th and 16th streets, where there is a natural bump-out in the dunes. The North Wildwood Beach Patrol headquarters sits at 15th Street.
Rosenello said the dunes, which were always the first line of defense, were hit hard from the recent storms. He said the previous damage to the dune in front of beach patrol headquarters, where the dune disappeared, was really what convinced the governor to get involved.
“The dune just north of the headquarters was breached and seawater was pouring into the street,” he said.
The city had already installed a steel bulkhead on the east (front) and south sides of the headquarters but not on the north side. He said if the island suffers a winter with a nor’easter every six weeks, as has been the case in the past, there would be no protection on the north side of the headquarters. He said the city already has an application to the state to install a bulkhead there.
Rosenello said the city has no choice but to move ahead with installing hard structures on the beachfront.
“When you have development behind the area it’s a moot point,” he said. “To constantly maintain a soft shore protection, you should have hard protection and then bury it.”
He refers to this as the “Cadillac” of shore protection models.
That point, he said, has been made to the Department of Environmental Protection, wherein the city said if the islandwide dune project by the Army Corps of Engineers and the DEP goes forward they would simply bury the hard structure.
Upper Township took a similar approach with the north end of Strathmere, which saw a loss of nearly all its sand, but the rock seawall remained. Rosenello said North Wildwood has a lot in common with Strathmere in that regard. He said Avalon has a hard structure across the inlet and a short distance down its oceanfront.
“They have the Cadillac – a hard structure covered with sand,” he said.
The mayor said the Hereford Inlet beach is growing and is trying to connect with Stone Harbor Point. He said there are certainly tens of millions of cubic yards of sand in the inlet that could be dredged and placed on North Wildwood’s beaches.
He said the seawall extension and the extension of the bulkhead around the Beach Patrol headquarters are the two major shore protection plans currently in the works. He said if the seawall extension is approved the project will go out for funding.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
