Higher Road to Sea Isle City Will Take Shape Slowly

OCEAN VIEW – Sea Isle City Boulevard from Garden State Parkway to Ludlam Thorofare Bridge is upward bound – by 4.5 feet. The $9-million project, which dates to 1996, will make Sea Isle City’s storm evacuation route drier and more secure, since it is the resort’s sole link to the mainland.
Some utility company work has begun; most noticeable is placement of large, steel electric poles by Atlantic City Electric. They were located farther from the roadway than wooden poles to allow for the new roadway. Verizon and Comcast will relocate their cables to those steel poles.
South Jersey Gas will also install an upgraded from the present 8-inch to 12-inch pipeline to service the barrier island.
County Engineer Dale Foster briefed freeholders on the project at the April 8 caucus. While the road’s name touts Sea Isle City, the entire project will take place in Dennis Township, he said.
In 1996, the county received a small grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to “look at causeways’ accessibility for evacuation,” Foster said. While other barrier island municipalities have two means of ingress and egress to the mainland, Sea Isle City has one, he restated.
Scoping funds were secured and early work began in 2002, he said. It has taken from then until the present to get the project to the point where “we will go out to bid May 2.”
Such a project, crossing wetlands, is laden with limitations by state and federal regulators.
Diamondback terrapin females seek high ground to lay eggs in late spring and early summer. They cross causeways and are often killed. To prevent such life-threatening transits, wildlife fencing must be placed on the back side of guide rails, Foster said.
Three culverts will be replaced with 48-inch by 72-inch pipes to allow “critters to go under the road,” he said.
“Will there be signage?” asked Vice Director Leonard Desiderio, and Sea Isle City mayor, at that statement.
“They didn’t ask us to light the thing,” Foster replied.
Additionally, the project must work in concert with those critters’ life cycles. Work must also be scheduled around anadromous fish, March 1 to June 31 (Foster laughed, since that date was listed on paperwork, but DEP corrected it to June 30 after being alerted by his office), winter flounder, Jan. 1 to May 31 and when osprey are nesting, March 15 to Sept. 1, no work can take place within 1,000 feet of a nest, of which there is one in the project area.
Mitigation of wetlands will also come into play as part of the project.
Raising a highway located across marshes means there will be some wetlands impacts, said Foster. Because of those impacts, there must be new wetlands created. For freshwater mitigation, there must be two square feet created for every square foot impacted; for coastal wetlands, a one-on-one creation must take place in order to get consent from the Federal Highway Administration. That’s because $1.6 million in federal “high-priority funding from (Surface Transportation Fund)” was secured by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd) in a transportation bill.
Where old Sea Isle City Boulevard and the present road divide, and Sunk’s Creek bulkhead is located, used by many to fish and crab, those will be used for the mitigation part of the project, Foster explained. Turning that bulkhead area into a recreational facility was part of the project’s Coastal Area Facilities Review Act permit. Creation of public access to waterways is deemed, by Department of Environmental Protection, as necessary in any public project. In fact, Foster added, there had to be a deed restriction that the facility always remains a recreational facility.
One of the first signs of progress will be evident this fall as fill is placed on what will be the north side of the roadway. Don’t expect paving to immediately follow. Foster said that fill must remain for about a year to settle before final work will continue.
Once that part if done, the southern lane will be next.
Realizing many motor vehicle crashes have taken place where the Garden State Parkway exits onto the boulevard, the project will include making that merge point safer. For the northbound access ramp the road will also be raised, Foster noted.
Faced with all the constraints, Foster reminded the board, the project will not be short-term, but is projected to go “out to 2020.” Part of that length is due to the year’s time waiting for fill to settle.
“The bulk of the work will be done this fall,” said Foster. “It’s the busiest phase.” Finished by year end,
“We’ve got to work around environmental restrictions; we can’t work in the water Jan. 1 to June 30 because of the anadromous and winter flounder.
Foster cited the need to begin the project since funds must be “drawn down” by June 30. He added that much had to be done quickly to keep funding for this project.
“Thank you for sticking with this,” said Desiderio. “We’ve run into a lot of roadblocks, but this is the only evacuation route we have in Sea Isle City.” He cited a heavy rain the previous night when some parts of the boulevard were flooded.