Details Emerge on Oceanfront Steel 'Wall' Project in Brick

A project to install a protective sheetpile revetment along the oceanfront in Brick Township and Mantoloking will begin in July after crews begin delivering materials June 23, and will likely last through October.

State officials addressed a packed room of Brick residents, most of whom live on the oceanfront, on Tuesday at a meeting, where it was revealed that the project will not begin in Brick Township until late August, and the sheetpile will be flanked by a geosynthetic scour apron for an extra layer of protection.

State officials are building the sheetpile sea wall 30 feet feet underground and 15 feet above ground in order to protect against breaching on Ocean County's northern barrier island. During Superstorm Sandy, a breach in Mantoloking was blamed for massive flooding on the island and mainland. The sheetpile will run from Lyman Street in Mantoloking to Brick Township's southern border in the Normandy Beach neighborhood, which borders Toms River.

The $23,837,000 project will be funded mainly through federal highway grants, since the project will protect the rebuilt Route 35, a state highway.

Work will initially begin July 7, after materials are delivered starting June 23, said Eric Doyle of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Coastal Engineering.

Two work crews will install the sheetpile in Mantoloking, and then, when the northernmost crew finishes the section between Herbert Street and Lyman Street in Mantoloking, shift down to Brick's southern border and work north, Doyle said.

The work will be an assembly-line style operation. Trucks will pick up sheet pile stored in the parking lot of Brick Beach III, then move it to a staging area in Mantoloking, where heavy equipment will drive it along the beach to its installation point. During the project's duration, police will temporarily block off beach entrances at Brick's public beaches and local association beaches, but oceanfront homeowners will likely lose access to their private beach entrances from their individual properties for a maximum of three weeks.

"When they complete a section, they will open it up the public, and will move the fence to the next section and fence it off to the public," said Doyle.

Crews will work on 500 foot-long sections of beach at a time, with about 150 feet being completed in a single work day, which will last from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Doyle said.

"Vibration monitors will be installed at two locations with seismographs," Doyle said. "If one of those get tripped, a message will be immediately sent to the contractor and they will stop all work immediately."

Staging for Brick Township's revetment installation will likely begin July 15 and the work itself is set to begin Aug. 20, according to Doyle.

In Brick's portion, the sheetpile wall itself will be stepped down at the southern terminus of the project to as low as six feet in height in order to protect homes south of the wall's construction.

The sheetpile will be capped with a rounded-off steel topping, in case the sheeting is ever revealed in a storm, but will normally be buried several feet below the improved dunes which will be installed during the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dune project – a separate project – which is slated to begin in October

During the upcoming Army Corps project, which is forecast to take up to 18 months to complete, dunes will be improved to about 25 feet in height in many locations, and beaches will be extended 200 feet in width.