Reconstruction and protection at NJ shore - Essay Example

3 April Reconstruction and Protection at NJ Shore Construction of barriers at the New Jersey islands 127-mile long coastline along the AtlanticOcean and 83 miles of shoreline along the Raritan and Delaware Bays will protect the island from the occasional violent and destructive water waves from the Atlantic Ocean. For instance, the Hurricane Sandy that trundled towards the New Jersey coastline pushed a record breaking storm that surged and swept through the islands. Notably, this occurrence usually forms less than narrow sand spits (Goudas 49).

It is worth noting that structures that were constructed on these islands before never considered the nature and natural calamities surrounding the islands. Therefore, there is alarming need to construct protective barriers to protect that island. Dunes and wetlands that formed part of natural defense against tides, floods, and storms that often affect or destroy islands; notably, these protective barriers n were removed during the construction on these islands (Goudas 52). Water that receded from Sandy led to destruction on these islands with some areas or regions on the islands recording an overwhelming destruction that need reconstruction towards rebuilding the New Jersey islands.

Historically, the New Jersey costal area is frequently hit by hurricanes and wind storms. In year 2011, Hurricane Irene struck the NJ coastal area. After the hurricane an immediate survey has been carried out by the Department of Environmental Protection Natural and Historic Resources Office of Engineering & Construction. According to department August 29, 2011 official memorandum about hundreds of places were severely damaged mainly due to sloped erosion across the coat (Keiser 1). The very next year even worse calamity occurred when very strong struck the NJ coastal areas, destroying or severely damaging about 30,000 businesses and homes and eroding the major coastal areas.

It has been estimated that Hurricane Sandy about $8 billion business loss has occurred across the NJ (Kirkham, and Rudolf par. 18).Besides others destruction, the Hurrican Sanddy also destroyed number of beach tourist attraction and entertainment points including the beach famouse Jet Star Roller Coaster and Seaside Heights Funtown Pier. The Jet Star partially smurged into Atlantic Ocean after the partial collapse of Casino Pier during Hurricane Sandy. According to reports Seaside Hights will reconstruct the demaged boardwalk as it has already awarded a $3.

6 million bid while it starts accepting bids from various companies to remove partially submerged steel coaster from the beach (Embden par.2)To help with reconstruction and the protection of the shore of the New Jersey, the project must be designed to reduce property damage and erosions that are associated with the regular coastal hurricane, storms, and northeasters. Each year approximately $ 25 million has been dedicated for the “development and protect of the existing infrastructure from storm surges, sea-level rise and shoreline migration through dune creation and maintenance, beach nourishment projects, and construction and repair of shore protection structures”(Keiser 4).

Reconstruction and protection of NJ shore include the number of beach nourishment, shore protection and wetlands restoration projects. In this regards, the major beach nourishment projects that have been carried out during 2003 to 2008 include the beach nourishment project of Absecon Island beach (2003), from Brigantine Inlet to Great Egg Harbor Inlet (Keiser 8), Lower Cape May Meadows beach project (2005) at Cape May Point NJ Section I (Keiser 10) and Strathmere Beach Nourishment project at South east side (2008) (Keiser 27).

In terms of shore protection and wetland restoration, numbers of both federal and state/local cost share funding based projects are going on. Notable among them, are thirteen (13) both Federal (65%) and state/local (35%) cost contributing shore protection projects are in progress as various location of coastal area (Current Projects Sec.1). Further, there are fourteen (14) state and local authorities funding wetland restoration and shore protection are in progress at various locations along the NJ coast.

In such projects the state is state contributing 75% of project coat while remaining 25% is provided by local authorities (Current Projects Sec.2). In view of these projects tall dunes of approximately 22 feet high with about 125 foot long beams that are elevated about 8 feet above the water levels (Goudas 47). The structures of these standards or measurements will be perfect in protecting the island from storm and wave damages. Additionally, sand of approximately 11,000,000 cubic yards should be placed at the beginning of construction.

These yards of sands should be followed by a periodic nourishment cycle that will contribute to approximately 2,000,000 cubic yard additional sand for every seven years (Goudas 73). Moreover, the seawalls shall be constructed to block that storm from the sea from causing damage of the island’s structures and infrastructure as well as human beings. Additionally, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Transportations Office of Maritime Resources and other special appropriations, six dreading projects are also in progress at various location of coastline (Current Projects Sec.3).These reconstruction and protection measures of the New Jersey shores shall ensure that the shores are protected from the violent and destructive water waves from the Atlantic Oceanthat often affects it.

Also these measures will save hundreds of thousands of people lives along with millions dollar infrastructure and property loss. Works Cited“Current Projects.” nj.gov. State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Natural and Historic Resources Office of Engineering & Construction., 3 July 2012. Web. 3 April 2013.Goudas, Constantine. Soft Shore Protection: An Environmental Innovation on Coastal Engineering; [first International Conference on Soft Shore Protection Held in October 2000 in Patras, Greece].

Dordrecht [u.a.: Kluwer Acad. Publ, 2003. Print.Embden, Edward Van. “A Step Closer to Removing Seaside Roller Coaster.” TomsRiverPatch 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 9 April 2013.Kirkham, Chris, and John Rudolf. “Jersey Shore Development Failures Exposed By Hurricane Sandy.” Huff Green Post Posted 11 Dec.2012. Web. 3 April 2013. Keiser, Benjamin. “Shore Protection Program.” New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Coastal Engineering 1510 Hooper Avenue, Suite 140 Toms River, New Jersey. n. d. Web. 3 April 2013.

Keiser, Benjamin. Coastal Storm Survey & Damage Assessment Hurricane Irene August 2ih through August 29th 2011. New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Coastal Engineering. New Jersey: 2011. Web. 3 April 2013.