![\"High](\"http:\/\/lavallette-seaside.shorebeat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_4925.png\")
<\/a>High tide water marks head toward the toe of a dune in Ortley Beach. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThe dune is the meat and potatoes of what we\u2019re putting out there,\u201d said Dr. Harry Friebel, a coastal expert with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, before the project even got off the ground. \u201cThe berm, I hate to use the word sacrificial, but it is there to protect the dune. Mother Nature is the best at doing what she wants to do. Nature is going to evolve the beach profile the way it wants to.\u201d<\/p>\n
In short, beach berms will usually return to a natural width. But the engineered dune, now a 22-foot high and 75-foot wide mountain flush with vegetation, is here to stay. Even if the berm gets smaller, the new dune itself has the small hills of sand that failed to protect many areas during Superstorm Sandy. The beach replenishment project, at its core, was never about making more room for blankets and chairs on the sand \u2013 it was about protecting the integrity of the island and the communities on both sides of Barnegat Bay from flooding.<\/p>\n
As for the sand that washed away \u2013 well, it\u2019s still there, you just can\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs fall comes and the winter comes, the waves get energized,\u201d said Friebel. \u201cThe waves will start eroding the wide berm from the summer profile and will deposit that sand into an offshore bar during the winter. As that offshore bar builds, those waves will break on the bar dispersing the energy out there rather than the berm.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, much of the wave energy that would have pummeled local beaches, dunes and boardwalks during storms is absorbed offshore before it ever reaches land. While surfers and anglers may not enjoy the same surf typically whipped up during nor\u2019easters, winter storms will not pack the same punch toward island beaches than they did just a few years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dune that [was] constructed was studied and found to be the most effective way to reduce damage along the coast,\u201d said Keith Watson, who served as project manager for the replenishment effort. \u201cIt didn\u2019t just begin this year and it didn\u2019t just begin with Sandy. This project began in the \u201890s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Replenishment was supposed to have occurred years ago, but the state was generally unwilling to wage legal battles against oceanfront homeowners who refused to allow replenishment crews access to slivers of their properties until after Sandy. A landmark ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed a jury award of more than $800,000 to a Harvey Cedars couple who had a small piece of their private dune taken for replenishment work, setting a precedent for the state to mount a case against holdouts. The court held that homeowners could not expect a \u201cwindfall\u201d from the local, state or federal governments for a project that arguably added value to their properties. The island-wide project, which started with an emergency round of replenishment in Ortley Beach in 2017, ended in July with the final streets in Point Pleasant Beach receiving sand.<\/p>\n