SEA ISLE CITY — Sea Isle City and Avalon will split the cost of emergency dredging to clear a sandbar that has been building in Townsends Inlet, the channel under the Townsends Inlet Bridge that connects the bay and the ocean between the two towns.
Sea Isle City Council unanimously approved the agreement with Avalon on Tuesday. Each town will pay $650,000 toward the $1.6 million project. Cape May County will add $250,000 and the Cape May County Bridge Commission $50,000.
The sandbar began forming last spring. The agreement calls it an "imminent threat" to commercial, charter and recreational boats and warns that "the inlet may soon become impassible" if the shoaling continues. The U.S. Coast Guard has placed buoys to guide boats under the bridge.
Work is expected to start next week and take about three days, Sea Isle Business Administrator George Savastano said. Crews will clear a section of the channel 200 feet wide and 20 feet deep, using dredging equipment already in Townsends Inlet for Avalon's beach replenishment. Officials say that saves millions of dollars in mobilization costs. The sand will go onto Avalon's beaches.
"This would be substantially more if we didn't do it now," Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio said of the cost, describing the buildup as "choking" the inlet.
Rob Burcaw, whose family runs a commercial fishing and lobster operation in Sea Isle, said, "It's getting bad again." Bob Rush, owner of Starfish Boats, said the inlet was last dredged in 1992 or 1993 during a similar buildup. A sandbar that formed about five years ago went away on its own.
What caused this one is unclear. Savastano doubted that Sea Isle's recent beach replenishment was to blame, since that sand was placed between 29th and 55th streets and the inlet is near 94th Street. The Bridge Commission attributes changes along the beach to a whirlpool effect from the channel's deep, fast-moving water.
Townsends Inlet is not a federal navigation channel, so it is unclear who is responsible for keeping it open, Sea Isle officials said. U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew hopes to have the inlet studied as a federal channel, which could bring permanent funding. State Sen. Michael Testa worked with the state Department of Environmental Protection to fast-track the emergency permit. Desiderio and Avalon Mayor John McCorristin thanked Van Drew for bringing the governments together.
"This is the way government is supposed to work — everybody is working together," Desiderio said.
As first reported by OCNJDaily.