Roland Millard looks out at the beach that will be part of a sand replenishment project from the balcony of his boardwalk home in Wildwood on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.In all that time, there’s always been plenty of sand to set up an umbrella and foldable chair on the resort town’s notoriously wide beach. And the 52-year-old can’t recall a storm in the last decade that was strong enough to make him fear the ocean could threaten the boardwalk planks below his second-story apartment.
State officials say they expect to award contracts for the project in June 2025 but it’s unclear when work on the beach would actually start. In the meantime, anEach pound of sand getting washed back into the Atlantic Ocean during the winter exacerbates conversations about more difficult, often recurring and, what ends up being, ever-expensive beach repairs throughout Jersey Shore towns getting ready for the summer with less or little beach.
The crux of the problem, various experts agreed, comes down to money and the bevy of stakeholders involved. Owners include Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, The Grand in Lower Township, smaller businesses and some individual homeowners like Millard.Mostly all those sign-offs still need to be secured, according to the latest state records provided and interviews with local officials and property owners.
The North Wildwood beach patrol building , where a dune breach was recently reported, can be seen in March 2023. City officials worked with the state to build up defenses around the building.“I think we’re the victim of four towns,” said Will Morey, president and CEO of Morey’s Piers, who has yet to approve about 10 real estate easements. “To some extent, if we were one town I think things would have moved along more quickly.
Troiano said of the Five Mile Island project: “I want to see what the design is and, personally, if it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.”