The former Joey Harrison’s Surf Club property, still undeveloped in July 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)
The Toms River Township council this week awarded a new contract for the construction of an extension to the Ortley Beach boardwalk due to a dispute over contract specifications nixed the initial deal that was approved in January.
In a resolution passed unanimously by the governing body Wednesday night, a previously-approved contract with Ashland Contactors, of Howell, was canceled and a new contract was awarded to Black Rock Enterprises, of Old Bridge, which has been hired to perform work on the boardwalks of several other Shore communities in recent years. Black Rock was the second-lowest bidder on the project, with a $3,874,573 cost. Ashland had bid $3.56 million.
Mayor Daniel Rodrick said after the bid had been awarded to Ashland, a disagreement arose regarding the project’s specifications and the hiring of subcontractors to perform portions of the work. Toms River had designed the project using what is known as a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA, that requires the use of organized labor drawn from Ocean County and two neighboring counties. The PLA requires the use of the e-Verify system for workers, residency requirements and the presence of an apprenticeship program by the contractor. PLAs are commonly used in large-scale projects in New Jersey to provide guaranteed sources of vetted labor and strict contract terms that cannot be canceled or modified once work begins.
The former Joey Harrison’s Surf Club parking area and beachfront parcel, Ortley Beach, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Shorebeat)
The former Joey Harrison’s Surf Club parking area and beachfront parcel, Ortley Beach, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Shorebeat)
The new contractor, Black Rock, has agreed to the terms and specifications that Toms River had been seeking. Rodrick touted the PLA, which was adopted by ordinance under the administration of former mayor Thomas Kelaher, as a way to ensure local residents received the vast majority of the opportunities to work on the project. In the case of Toms River, 90 percent of workers must be from Ocean, Monmouth or Burlington counties.
“When we’re spending million of dollars, I hate seeing so many license plates from other states and illegal labor,” said Rodrick.
The project is still scheduled to begin in the spring and will likely take much of the summer to complete, however the work will largely be limited to areas of beachfront where there is no current access. The project consists of extending the neighborhood’s boardwalk across the site that was once home to Joey Harrison’s Surf Club, which was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy. It will also include the reconstruction of a parking lot for public access that was once used as a parking lot for the nightclub.
Demolition begins at Joey Harrison’s Surf Club, Dec. 3, 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
According to the project plans, the boardwalk will measure approximately 50-feet wide by 300-feet long and be elevated about 15-feet above the existing street-level grade. It will stand about 5-feet above the dune crest elevation set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the recent beach replenishment project. A pavilion will be situated atop the elevated boardwalk and will measure approximately 50-by-100 feet. The boardwalk and pavilion are anticipated to be made with wood-framed construction and will be supported on timber piles having a minimum capacity of 10 tons.
The boardwalk will run between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, and will connect to the existing boardwalk which is located to the south. While township officials had attempted previously to design a full connection to the separate boardwalk that begins at Fifth Avenue, it was ultimately deemed unfeasible due to the presence of privately-owned condominiums to the north of the former Surf Club site. Environmental regulations precluded the boardwalk from being moved further east into the dunes to avoid touching the private property.
The boardwalk will be supported by timber piles that were recommended by an engineer to be driven 20-feet into the sand. They can withstand 10 tons of weight and 5 tons of uplift. The piles will have a 12-inch diameter. Additionally, the township’s state CAFRA (Coastal Areas Facilities Review Act) permit calls for enhancement of a portion of the existing dune with about 75 cubic yards of beach sand and native plantings, plus the additional planting of 4,110 square yards of native vegetation.
The Joey Harrison’s Surf Club property, prior to demolition, Jan. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
The pavilion will be located at about the midpoint of the boardwalk extension and measure 3,040 square feet in area, while the boardwalk itself will measure approximately 13,220 square feet in area. The parking lot will be reconstructed in the parcel that was originally used as the Surf Club’s parking lot, spanning the area between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
The Surf Club property was purchased by the township utilizing state Blue Acres funding in partnership with Ocean County. The nightclub and restaurant was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
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