Jetty rocks are piled. Sand is raked and plowed into a vertical dune-like stretch down the beach. Trucks are digging, pulling and plowing sand. The relatively new boardwalk that earmarked a piece of a beginning after Superstorm Sandy’s wrath is demolished. The Where Angels Play playground has been dismantled. It’s what Sea Bright Public Beach and north and south of it look like on any given day lately. Sea Bright beach rebirth has begun.

It’s been just about five years since Superstorm Sandy slammed Sea Bright, leaving the entire peninsula nearly flattened. It’s been rebuilding, rising since.

Now the borough is entrenched in the most expensive beach replenishment/seawall construction projects undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in history.

Spanning 21 miles from Sandy Hook to Manasquan Inlet, the roughly $35 million project is divided into two sections: one part involves a 12-mile span of beach from Sea Bright to Ocean Township; and the other extends the remaining nine miles from Asbury Park to Mansasquan. Then there’s the reconstruction of the seawall.

The design specs comprise construction of 3,188 feet of new seawall that will connect with older existing segments from Sea Bright to Monmouth Beach. It is designed to withstand future storms better.

Here’s how the financing works, according to a release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the lead funding agency”

“FEMA obligated $28,358,886.60 in additional grant funding for the repair of the Hurricane Sandy-damaged seawall in Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach, bringing the total FEMA funding obligated for the project to date to $31,344,834.

“That amount represents 90 percent of the total project cost of $34,827,594. The State of New Jersey will fund the remaining 10 percent.

“The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will perform the work.”

The project includes periodic beach replenishment in six-year cycles.

Take a look at what’s transpired lately …

For updated information, check the Army Corps’ project fact sheet. 

— Elaine Van Develde