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I hope you had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. The Holiday season in now upon us in full force! The pumping of sand resumed after the storm, and certainly not a minute too soon. The last Nor’easter took a significant toll on the beaches, especially on the southern end of Town. Erosion was significant enough that a portion of the road on East Atlantic was undermined and crumbled away, and several homes were almost completely undermined. The Town has had their equipment out and is repairing the damage and shoring up the beaches in advance of the replenishment.
The discharge unit for the sand is currently at 79th street. Sand is being pumped from that point heading north, then will proceed south to a point determined by the Army Corp. Then the dredge hook up will be moved south, and the north/south pumping will start again. We understand that this will occur three times to replenish the beaches through out the town. It is a rather impressive process to watch, and is going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The dredge is a hoper dredge. It steams out to the collection site, collects the sand, then comes back and connects to a platform with pipe that connects to the discharge and filter unit. The sand is then pumped from the ship, through the screens and bulldozers push the sand around the beach.
There will be several differences between how the project was conducted in Surf City and how it will be conducted in Harvey Cedars. First, and most important, there is a much finer screen on the discharge unit to ensure that none of the munitions fuses end up on our beaches.
Second, the Mayor and Commissioners feel that the street ends/beach entrances in Surf City look too industrial or commercial, and are not in keeping with our town. They will be working with the Army Corps and the town work crews to make them look much more natural.
The third difference will be the material used on the walkways to and from the beach. In Surf City a material call I5 was used. While this creates a very hard-backed surface making it easy for people to walk, it is also subject to erosion. If you have seen these paths in Surf City, there are small gullies that form from rain run-off. In Harvey Cedars, we will use a material called “infield fill” which is similar to what is used in baseball parks. It forms a fairly hard-packed surface that makes it easy to walk on, but also allows for the water to soak in, not run off so quickly. Therefore we should not see the erosion/gully issues seen in Surf City.
The project is on schedule to be completed in March 2010. Several HCTA members will be taking pictures of the project as it progresses, will post these from time-to-time so you can follow the progress. Please visit our website at harveycedarstax.org for updates and to see storm pictures taken by Brian Devlin and replenishment pictures taken by Bill Clark.
Sincerely,
Bryan Lewis President, HCTA
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