AVALON – The borough has been forced to push back, into the summer, the completion date for a beach replenishment project because of road and bridge work.

For years the borough has replenished its beaches as needed with back-passing projects in years when no federal hydraulic replenishment is scheduled. It is a project that moves sand from a borrow area around 34th Street to eroded areas in the north-end beaches.

The project is outsourced to a company that has the heavy equipment needed for the task, but the problem this year is getting that equipment onto the island.

With weight limits on the Stone Harbor 96th Street bridge, the entry and exit path for the equipment is Avalon Boulevard, where county road and bridge work is dictating a later start and finish to the sand replenishment project.

The borough cannot get the equipment onto the island until the county has completed its work on the only entryway capable of supporting the equipment.

At a work session of the Borough Council March 26, Borough Engineer Thomas Thornton explained the need to set a new completion date for the project. What had been a completion target date of May 9 is now set for July 7.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.