Surf City: Beaches Will Be Ready for Summer

Surf City officials say the borough's beaches will be ready for the summer season.

"They'll be ready, don't worry," said Council President Francis R. Hodgson, Sr.

The borough experienced damage to its ocean dunes and beach entrances during Superstorm Sandy, and most streets in town now have a steep drop from the top of the dune line down to the sand.

Barricades that prevented people from walking on the oceanfront over the winter have now been removed, but the slope down makes it difficult – if not impossible – for many to access the beach.

That will be taken care of soon, officials promised.

"We're waiting for the nor'easter season to move on so our public works folks can put up the dune fencing and grade the sand so there's not as much of a slope," said Councilman Peter Hartney.

Hartney said public works crews would be working on each of the borough's street ends that lead to the ocean, with the work likely to begin over the last two weeks of May and be ready in the beginning of June.

Sandy ate away a large portion of the dunes and beach entrances that were built in a 2006 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach replenishment project. As part of that project, however, Surf City is entitled to dune maintenance, and the federal agency was due to begin accepting bids for dune and beach repair work Thursday.

The Army Corps project, which will also include work in the Brant Beach section of Long Beach Township, will involve pumping 2.2 million cubic yards of sand ashore and restoring the work of the 2006 project, according to Stephen Rochette, spokesman for the Corps' Philadelphia district. Bids are set to be received back by the end of April and work could begin as early as May or June.

Surf City's borough council this week also awarded a $10,300 contract for repairs to the concrete walkway at its bay beach, which was heavily damaged during the storm.