A week into a town-wide beach replenishment project, the signs of progress are more than obvious. By Wednesday afternoon, an immense dune had been erected in front of the boardwalk in the southern portion of town, providing a rough glimpse into what Lavallette’s protective barrier will eventually look like.

Crews are working on a 24-hour basis in Lavallette, pumping sand from donor sites just offshore through a network of pipes. The sand is then spread by crews on the beach. The borough will eventually receive an 22-foot tall, vegetated dune that spans the entire oceanfront. As they currently stand, the dunes are essentially piles of sand, however they are beginning to take the shape of the engineered dune system that has been designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. When completed, the dunes will be covered in four species of plants to anchor the sand and will have the potential to grow even larger over time if a snow fence is added to trap blowing sand.

The beach itself will be expanded to at least 200-feet, though the project’s design expects some of that sand to migrate just offshore and form a bar that will serve its own purpose – soaking up wave energy before the breakers.

The dredge boats Dredges RN Weeks and Magdalen are currently conducting dredging and beachfill operations. The streets where the work is being performed (and which were photographed for this story) are New Jersey, Jersey City, Princeton, Elizabeth and Newark avenues.

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