Calling the project "folly" and a "waste of money," Jeff Tittel director NJ Sierra Club denounced the federal government's announcement it would move forward with a steel sea wall on the beachfront of Mantoloking and Brick Township.
The Federal Highway Administration has approved a post-Superstorm Sandy infrastructure protection project to construct and install four miles of steel sheet piling to be driven deep into the beaches in Mantoloking and Brick in what state DEP Commissioner Bob Martin has said will safeguard Route 35 and nearby homes and businesses from future catastrophic storms.
Tittel disagrees with Martin the project will be effective, and instead says it would make a bad situation worse:
"This project is a folly and a waste of money .We are repeating the failed policies of the past instead of making our coast more resilient. Sea walls not only do not work but they actually cause more damage. The walls raise water levels and the water moves around the wall making it worse in adjoining areas. Steel walls actually increase beach erosion as the waves first remove the sand then hit the walls scouring the sand back out to sea. Then with sand gone the storm surge will over top the wall. We need a holistic approach that includes restoring dunes and natural systems other wise all this work will get destroyed in the next storm." Jeff Tittel director NJ Sierra Club.
The $36-million project is expected to go out to bid Jan. 22.
"This important project will help protect a narrow segment of coastline that was breached during Superstorm Sandy, resulting in substantial damage to property and lives in these towns and to this vital coastal roadway that is the key artery in this region," Commissioner Martin said in a prepared statement. "It is paramount that we lessen the vulnerabilities to future storms.''
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