Shifting Sands at Traders Cove

Some tweaks to the Traders Cove project could improve the bayside site while helping the township's police department.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said Tuesday that work is continuing at the site, but there are now plans to transport fill that was delivered to the site last year to Ridge Road in order to shore up the police firing range there.

The range in order to avoid bullet ricochets, police officials have said. Plans to reconstruct the range are currently stalled as the township capital budget is under consideration by the township council.

The fill – which the township received mostly free of charge from a lake dredging project in Point Pleasant Beach – will be replaced by soil more sandy in nature that is coming from a project at Ocean County College. The OCC soil will help with drainage at the Traders Cove site and be a better fit for the property, the mayor said.

"They'd like to have more of a sandy soil in the area where the clam shell is going to be and where the boat trailer parking will be," Acropolis said, adding that the sandy soil will also become more compact over time.

"It's even better than the soil that we had, and the soil that we had can be used up at the firing range."

Delays in handing out contracts for the site have pushed the project's completion date back to November 2012, Acropolis said, though the marina will be open this summer, as will the boardwalk that runs along the bay.

Additionally, the public boat ramp at the site will be open all summer as well.

The public will be able to access the site from the county's portion of the park, which includes a parking lot and fishing pier closer to the south side of the Mantoloking Bridge.

Following a earlier this year, plans to construct a splash park at the site were scuttled. An unintended consequence of canceling the splash park was that plans for bathrooms were also thrown out. The township is currently pursuing a $1.2 million grant that will pay for the construction of bathrooms there, Acropolis said.

Traders Cove, a former derelict marina on Barnegat Bay, is being turned into a park by the township.