Engineer Tells City Ways Beach Slope Can Make for Safer Surf

COURT HOUSE – Following two special meetings, the work session of Cape May City Council Jan. 5 marked the third gathering of the governing body in six days.
The topic that absorbed most of the discussion was beach safety and the city’s search for a feasible way to attack the trend of injuries caused, many believe, by the steep slope of the resort’s beaches.
Cape May’s beaches were engineered by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of a 50-year agreement. Beginning in 1989, the corps has managed an ongoing beach replenishment project which has not only added protection for the shore community, but has also become central to its economy, based largely on tourism.
Whether because of the unintended effect of years of replenishment, as some believe, or because of the natural impact of wave and wind action against the unnatural engineered beaches, as others would maintain, the result of years of beach creation has been a steep slope in the surf zone. 
The city’s engineering firm, Hatch Mott MacDonald was asked to study the feasibility of a project or projects that could be undertaken by the city to reduce the slope, creating a more moderate and gradual decline to the low tide mark.
Thomas Thornton of the firm is the city engineer. On Dec. 15, Thornton helped present the firm’s findings at a public meeting. The presentation is located on the city’s website.
The presentation and final report were organized around the specific charge from the city, which was to study the beach slope and propose alternatives for projects the city might undertake to make that slope more gradual and less dangerous to beach goers.
The study is complex, involving analysis of years’ worth of data, grain size of the sand, wave patterns and a host of variables best understood by coastal engineers.
Yet, it also is just a slice of the many potential areas of study that could impact beach safety. The study did not attempt to look at the potential impact of structural measures such as an artificial reef, largely because such areas of action would most likely be well out of the cost range the municipality could deal with. The study’s focus was on beach slope which was what the city specifically requested.
There is a hope that structural engineering solutions will be considered by the Army Corps which has the resources and funds to undertake such projects. “Generally if you consider structural solutions, you want to get the corps involved,” Thornton said.
After six weeks of analysis, the firm returned with an analysis that left one option prominent among alternatives. That option calls for “moving sand” on the beaches to achieve a slope of 1V:25H, one foot vertical for 25 feet horizontal, as opposed to the current slope of 1V:10H.
The study argued that the new slope, if achieved, would significantly impact wave action, reducing the number of plunging waves and creating a less dangerous spill wave condition.
The plunging wave action, simulated Dec. 15, is seen as a danger to beach goers even when they are in relatively shallow water at levels of 18 inches to two feet. Altering the slope should, say engineers, reduce significantly that dangerous form of wave action.
The firm produced a recommended action and an estimated cost of between $850,000 and $1.2 million depending on width of the beach area to be treated.
The project would likely result in excess sand, which the firm suggested could be used to widen the existing dunes. The catch, and it’s a big one, is that wave and wind action would most likely work to return the slope to a more natural 1V:10H level again very quickly.
The best case offered by engineers is a project done close enough to the start of the summer season that might last through to the beginning of the fall. When asked by Council member Roger Furlin, if this engineered slope would be something that would only last one year, Thornton replied “We are not that optimistic.” The possibility is that maintenance of the slope alteration might be needed within the same season as when it is done, and certainly the project to achieve that gentler slope would be needed annually.
Even if the governing body could get its hands around that level of yearly expense, other problems make it even more difficult. The work on the beach is governed by a permitting process controlled by the state DEP and the Army Corps.
Annual work, requiring ongoing annual permitting would be an onerous as well as an expensive task.
Council accepted the firm’s final report with most members praising the effort behind the quick, six-week analysis.
Mayor Edward Mahaney called it a “Useful weapon in our arsenal to solve this problem.” He said council should immediately forward the report to the Army Corps and state Department of Environmental Protection seeking an expedited response. 
The fact that the city had undertaken this type of effort on its own, he hoped would encourage the two agencies to partner with the city on a set of discussions for how to proceed.
Mahaney hoped for technical, administrative and financial support from the two agencies, arguing that Cape May’s head start on beach engineering dating from 1989 and years of replenishment since put it at the forefront of a problem that other communities will also experience.
His hope was that the Army Corps would want to use Cape May as an experiment in how to deal with the issue.
The work session also brought out the fact that the Army Corps has not accepted that there is any direct correlation between beach replenishment and increases in beach injuries.
Mahaney also called for an increase in the public education campaign, carried on by the city for several years on a smaller scale. He hoped that the availability of a city TV channel and the plethora of social media sites available could provide an avenue for greater distribution of information to increase public awareness of beach safety issues and the proper way to decrease the chances of beach injuries.
Lastly Mahaney called for working with Cape Regional Medical Center to get a better handle on data concerning injuries from all the county beach communities and the factors that may have contributed to them.
He and others pointed to a similar arrangement in Delaware where the central shore medical complex has been able to gather and structure such data coming from injuries related to Delaware beaches. “This can be done in ways that do not breach individual patient confidentiality,” he said.
Council members agreed to the approach the mayor outlined. Some in the public reminded council that the next beach season is only four months away and urged quick action. The mayor reiterated that nothing stops here. “We move forward,” he said.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.