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By Steven Rodas | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A Jersey Shore town is once again dipping into its own pockets to keep the beaches sandy in time for the summer.
Avalon, which is flanked by Stone Harbor and Townsends Inlet, needs sand — although a $37.7 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project dropped loads of it there and in Stone Harbor just last spring.
Scott Wahl, business administrator for Avalon, told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday that of the more than 550,000 cubic yards of sand the town received last spring: “Very little of that sand is left.”
“The volume of sand for a hydraulic beach fill is driven by two factors: Sand availability, and money availability,” Wahl said.
Avalon, he noted, is no stranger to replenishing its beaches with more sand ahead of the busier months.
The town restored beaches with 700,000 cubic yards of sand in 2015 and north of 940,000 cubic yards two years later.
Last year’s Army Corps project was initially estimated to be $28 million but that cost later ballooned during contract negotiations, an Army Corps spokesman said. That work, part of a years-long plan to periodically replenish those slices of the Jersey Shore every two to four years, also benefited Stone Harbor.
Avalon paid $1.1 million for that larger shore project work last year, Wahl confirmed. The rest of the cost was covered by other sources including state and federal taxpayers.
In the end, Stone Harbor, the town next door, received more than 700,000 cubic yards of sand as well.
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