Final report for 2014 on the condition of the municipal beaches in the Township of Upper, Cape May County, New Jersey
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Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2014

description: This annual report presents the status of the beaches and inlet (Corson’s) within the Township of Upper for 2014. Hurricane Sandy pulled substantial quantities of sand from the beaches and dunes north of Corson’s Inlet in Ocean City. This material partially returned to the beach, but much of it migrated south on prevailing littoral currents to the ebb-tidal shoals of Corson’s Inlet, where deposition of that sand along the northern channel margin produced migration of the tidal channel to the southwest toward both the NJ State Park at Corson’s Inlet and the municipal oceanfront between Seacliff and Seaview Avenues along the beach. This subsidiary channel had migrated close to the northeast corner of the Township municipal beach generating an erosional scarp that had re-exposed the steel sheet piling and revetment rocks installed under emergency events in 2008 prior to the 2009 NJ State and locally sponsored beach restoration project. This erosional sequence paralleled conditions observed between late 2007 into 2008 that lead to the 2009 restoration. In Upper Township an erosional zone north of Winthrop extending into the NJ State Park began in January 2014 and progressively became worse, reaching critical concern in early July 2014. The elevations on the large armor stones at the steel wall had dropped several feet due to the combination of settling under wave action and the lack of a supporting foundation under the placed rocks. Favorable winds from the northwest becoming southeast dominated much of December, allowing sand to be transported to the vulnerable areas at the northern beaches (Seaview Avenue). The result, as seen in the cover photograph taken December 28, 2014, is a dry beach at the foot of the armored rocks in front of the steel wall as well as a significant lobe of sand protruding north towards Corson’s Inlet. Over the course of the last five years there has been five Presidential disaster declarations made for New Jersey’s coast in response to three northeast storms and two hurricanes, starting with a strong northeaster November 11-13, 2009 to most recently Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012. A Presidential disaster declaration was not issued for the offshore passage of Hurricane Arthur on July 4, 2014. However, the dune at the northern end of the island retreated about 100 feet and exposed the Seaview and shore-parallel Neptune Avenue to direct erosion. Each of the previous Presidential declarations has allowed the Township to be eligible for FEMA reimbursement under Category “G” losses to an engineered beach project to share the cost of sand replacement following each storm event. The Township of Upper oceanfront shoreline and nearshore bathymetry were surveyed by Stockton University Coastal Research Center (CRC) to document changes in shoreline position and volume from these storms and over the past year. This annual report presents a discussion of shoreline changes and performance of the engineered beach and surrounding areas.