Please Pass the Sand

AVALON – Following four March nor’easters, Avalon’s north-end beaches need sand. Luckily, the sand eroded from those beaches never left the borough. 
The beaches from Ninth to 14th streets in Avalon are in need of sand replenishment after poundings from March storms. A three-day weather event in early March did much of the damage with sustained high winds.
The final nor’easter of the month caused more damage to the beaches due to high wave action.
A large amount of the eroded sand from the north traveled only as far as the beaches at 34th and 35th streets. A high sand bar at 35th Street has produced a gully with deep water on the beach side.
In June 2016, the borough engaged in a back-passing project in which workers scraped sand from beaches in the area of 35th Street and trucked it to eroded areas in the north. 
Avalon is seeking the necessary state and federal permits to repeat that process.
According to Borough Engineer Thomas Thornton, the north-end beaches will require between 25,000 and 35,000 cubic yards of sand. The “borrow area” in the middle of the borough has accumulated an additional 50,000 cubic yards.
Thornton said that sand should be able to be borrowed from these mid-borough beaches with minimal disruption. “We don’t need to go as deep as we went before,” he said. 
This will also allow borough personnel to rid the area of the gully which was naturally formed rather than any back-passing efforts.
Business Administrator Scott Wahl informed borough council that research done by the Stockton University Coastal Research Center suggested that some minor changes to the Townsend’s Inlet borrow area, used for hydraulic replenishments by the Army Corps of Engineers, might allow southern flowing sand to hook around the Avalon jetty and naturally replenish sand on north-end beaches. That sand is currently trapped in the inlet.
Wahl said that the Army Corps has agreed to look at the scientific data developed by the Coastal Research Center’s Director Dr. Stewart Farrell to determine if a change should be made to the Townsend’s Inlet borrow area.
Meanwhile, the trucks will be moving sand to the north end in this relay with Mother Nature.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.