Toms River Approves $438K For Dune Repair Project

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Township Council approved a contract Tuesday night for $438,525 to repair the dunes that were badly damaged in the February nor'easter, with the goal of having them ready for Memorial Day weekend.

The approval of the contract with Earle Asphalt, which will truck in sand to Ortley Beach and grade the beach, will get the project to repair the damage started, Township Engineer Robert Chankalian said.

The original bid package included the beach sand and the work to repair the fences and walkovers, but Chankalian said a fencing contractor the township has used will do that portion of the project at a significantly lower price.

Earle, which was the low bidder on the sand part of the project, is the same company that did dune repairs in the years after Superstorm Sandy and before the Army Corps of Engineers extended the beach as part of its beach and dune project all along the northern barrier peninsula in Ocean County.

The sand from a quarry will be deposited in the middle section of Ortley Beach, from the Block House to the Lord House, which suffered the most damage during the three-day storm, Chankalian said.

"Earle has done this for us several times," he said. Earle was tentatively scheduled to begin the work May 5, pending the council's approval. The company estimates it will take eight days to do the beach fill and grading, he said.

The fence and walkover repairs should begin shortly afterward, and the beach should be in usable condition in time for Memorial Day weekend, he said.

The township is hoping the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse at least a portion of the costs of the repairs, and Chankalian said the township has applied for FEMA reimbursement. The reimbursement process starts with an estimate of the costs, and once the work is complete, submission of the final cost of the project.

Chankalian said the township had to follow specifications from the state Department of Environmental Protection in choosing the sand, which has to be similar in the size of the grains to what exists on the beach in Ortley now.

"We even matched the color," he said.

Chankalian said that because the Army Corps had so recently done the beach replenishment and dune project, it was monitoring the area for "hot spots" that suffered damage, and will make adjustments in the future.

"Next time the Corps will build beach area more into the ocean," he said. "Up until this storm (in February) this dune's done very well by us," compared with the years between Superstorm Sandy and the Army Corps project, when the township was buttressing the Ortley dunes every year.

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