{"id":25648,"date":"2025-09-05T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=25648"},"modified":"2025-09-05T06:00:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:00:50","slug":"bill-to-purchase-dredge-boat-with-manasquan-inlet-in-mind-passes-u-s-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2025\/09\/bill-to-purchase-dredge-boat-with-manasquan-inlet-in-mind-passes-u-s-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to Purchase Dredge Boat, With Manasquan Inlet in Mind, Passes U.S. House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The USACE dredge boat Murden clears a channel through Manasquan Inlet, Feb. 6, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4) that would provide $50 million in dedicated funds for a new shallow draft dredging vessel, which Smith specifically sought to address dangerous shoaling issues at the Manasquan Inlet and other locations, has passed the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

The funding was included in the Energy & Water Appropriations Act (HR 4553).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been fighting for years for a new dredge, and this bill will make that a reality,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

The congressman has taken a particular interest in nagging safety issues at Manasquan Inlet. In recent years, despite occasional maintenance dredging, shoaling has increased to a level rarely seen in some time. Specifically, the shoaling at the inlet\u2019s south jetty has become so pronounced, at times, that people have been able to set up beach chairs on the sand within the inlet channel itself. The sand buildup has been identified as a safety issue not only for visitors who could get caught in the currents as the tide changes, but for the lucrative commercial fishing industry based in Point Pleasant, whose vessels must navigate the busy inlet channel along with a mass of recreational boats during the summer season.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessels Currituck<\/em> and Murden<\/em> have both been used to periodically clear the shoaling, however officials have long called for additional capacity so emergency situations would not require diversions of the limited number of vessels, prompting delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cCategorized as a dynamic inlet with strong tides, regularly shifting sands that create very dangerous shoaling, sand bars, and wave action, the Manasquan Inlet can become treacherous \u2014 and at times impassible \u2014 for both commercial and recreational boaters,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe threat to life and the grave economic impact the shoaling has on NJ\u2019s fishing industry demand a long-term, sustainable solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Shoaling<\/a>

Shoaling at Manasquan Inlet, Aug. 17, 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Manasquan<\/a>

Manasquan Inlet (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Historically, Currituck<\/em> and Murden<\/em> have been only two government-owned, shallow-draft dredges serving the East Coast from Galveston, Tx. to Maine. But the Currituck<\/em> \u2013 the oldest dredging vessel owned by the Army Corps of Engineers \u2013 has been out of service for several years, leaving only the Murden<\/em> available to dredge inlets and ports along thousands of miles of shoreline. This lack of operating equipment \u201ccould be catastrophic to ports up and down the eastern seaboard,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

The same bill that funds the purchase of the dredge boat also includes renewed funding for beach replenishment projects, Smith said, amidst previous concerns that such projects could have been cut from the federal budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should also be clear,\u201d added Smith, \u201cthat beach replenishment funds are appropriated in this bill, and existing funds appropriated just this past December \u2014 which have not been fully expended \u2014 are available for critical beach replenishment projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4) that would provide $50 million in dedicated funds for a new shallow draft dredging vessel, which Smith specifically sought to address dangerous shoaling issues at the Manasquan Inlet and other locations, has passed the House of Representatives. The funding was included in the Energy & Water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[24,2379,4484,256,1970],"class_list":["post-25648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boating-fishing","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-dredge-boat","tag-featured","tag-manasquan-inlet","tag-u-s-army-corps-of-engineers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/dji_fly_20230206_161940_366_1675718497688_photo_optimized-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6FG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25649,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648\/revisions\/25649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}