New Jersey awards $38M beach reconstruction contract

LONG BRANCH, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey has awarded a $38 million contract to a Seattle company that will reconstruct beaches and handle several shore protection projects in Monmouth County.

Manson Construction Company is slated to start the work in the spring. The contract was awarded this week and made public Friday night.

The contract calls for the company to pump about 1.4 million cubic yards of sand on 1.6 miles of beach in Elberon and Deal. It also will modify six existing stormwater outfalls and modify two existing groins, which are coastal protection structures that extend from the beach into the ocean.

The restoration and repair work is funded through the Army Corps' Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies program, while the construction is funded by the federal government.

"This project is critical to the protection of lives and property by filling in a gap along a key stretch of coastline in Monmouth County," state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said in a prepared statement announcing the contract award.

A second contract, which will include beach fill, modification of existing outfalls and modification of an existing groin, is scheduled to be awarded in the summer of 2015. This will complete work on a 3.5-mile section of beach, which will be 100 feet wide.

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