Deterioration of the bluff, a barrier made up of rock, sand and soil that protects the Long Branch beachfront, was a major factor contributing to the destruction of the boardwalk during Sandy. KENNY WALTER/STAFF Long Branch officials are working with state and federal agencies to approve the final design for the replacement of the Sandy-damaged boardwalk.
City Planner Pratap Talwar, who is taking the lead on the project, has submitted a report to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that outlines several design options for the boardwalk and the protective bluff that buffers the structure from storms.
According to Talwar, the design must be approved by FEMA, which awarded the city $14.5 million for the project in January.
“What we have been doing on the city’s behalf is providing an assessment on the damage and alternatives for how to approach the reconstruction,” he said. “The discussion is ongoing.”
According to Talwar, there are 20 to 30 options for the rebuild.
“Our team is working very closely to imagine different alternatives, to discuss them with the funding agencies, and also to discover the impact, benefits and cost of doing each of these options,” Talwar said during the April 8 City Council workshop meeting.
According to Talwar, the bluff — composed of sand, soil and rock — began to erode long before the October 2012 superstorm.
“If you are talking about building something more resilient than what was there prior to Sandy, we need to understand how that condition happened,” he said.
“Before Sandy, there were other storm, and the condition of the bluff has been constantly changing.”
Talwar said the bluff at the Brighton Avenue beach was four times as wide in 1890 as it is today.
“Storms and waves and wind and weather have taken an incremental toll on the bluff over a long period of time,” he said. “In many of these places, the real cause of the destruction of the boardwalk was the actual erosion of the bluff.” Following the storm, the boardwalk appeared intact in several locations, but the bluff supporting it was severally damaged and resembled a cliff, he said.
Because the elevation of the beachfront changes drastically from the north to the south beaches, the bluff ranges from approximately 30 feet above sea level in the southern portion near Brighton Avenue to a lower elevation at the northern beachfront.
In January, the city awarded a $96,000 contract for a boundary and topographic survey of the beachfront.
Talwar said the initial results of the study show that the bluff can actually be divided into three distinct sections: a shallow stretch, a transitional stretch and a steep stretch.
“Each section was affected differently by the wave action. Therefore our future consideration of resiliency has to take this into account,” he said. “Essentially, what has happened in this whole area is that the boardwalk itself was not overtopped by the waves.”
He said the waves did not reach the steepest section of the bluff to overtake the boardwalk, and the bluff absorbed the brunt of the wave action.
However, to the north — where the bluff is shallow — the waves lifted and moved the boardwalk.
Talwar said that while the final decision on a design is weeks from being made, the city should use the boardwalk at Pier Village as a starting point.
Even though it sits approximately 30 feet lower than the boardwalk to the south, the promenade was built to heightened standards and survived the storm, he said.
According to Mayor Adam Schneider, plans call for constructing a wider boardwalk to enhance recreational use.
Even though FEMA has committed the
14.5 million for the replacement of approximately one-mile of boardwalk and protective bluff, the funds are targeted for projects that strengthen or protect structures. The city will have to incur the additional cost of a wider boardwalk.
“It is a very difficult engineering operation,” Schneider said. “It is not a flat thing where we can just rebuild it and be done.”
Schneider said the remnants of the boardwalk would be removed by the middle of June. He said he wants to avoid constructing the new boardwalk during the summer beach season.
While the city will be without a boardwalk for the second summer, temporary access points will be built for beachgoers to safely access the city’s 15 public beaches
“We can’t rebuild. The bluff isn’t there to build it on,” Schneider said. “We’ll make our decisions over the next couple of months. The goal will be to not disrupt the summer season.”