PHILADELPHIA (September 18, 2014) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $9.9-million contract to the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company for a coastal and storm damage reduction project at Oakwood Beach, N.J.
The project, which entails the construction of a 50-foot wide berm, or beach, is a joint effort of the Army Corps’ Philadelphia District and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The cost of construction will be shared between the federal government and the state on a 65/35 basis. Following the initial construction, the project will be renourished periodically over a span of 50 years under the same spending formula. Thanks to a provision in the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, the state will be able to finance its portion of the initial construction over 30 years.
Work on the Oakwood Beach project is expected to commence some time after Nov. 1 and must be completed by Mar. 1 because of an environmental restriction after that time.
Sand for the project will come from a borrow area in the main channel of the Delaware River. This project is not connected with the deepening of the main channel, however, another Corps’ project.
The Oakwood project is nearly two miles in length and will entail an estimated quantity of 346,000 cubic yards of sand.
The project was authorized more than a decade ago but did not receive funding until 2013 when Congress enacted Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-2, or often referred to as the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill).
Release no. 14-021