About-face: Army Corps halts dune work in Ventnor, heads to Margate

MARGATE, N.J. — Margate's bad dune karma has apparently kicked in once again.

In a move attributed to weather and equipment problems, but which some people in Margate immediately interpreted as payback from the highest levels in Trenton for their ferocious objections to Gov. Christie's dune project, the Army Corps of Engineers said late Thursday that it would spend the summer building dunes and closing beaches in Margate, not Ventnor.

The corps is doing a literal about-face at Fredericksburg Avenue, the line between Ventnor and Margate, where the arrival of enormous pipes and heavy equipment, and the prospect of 24-hour beeping from the beach, was greeted with fear and loathing by residents.

But instead of proceeding north through Ventnor, closing beaches for three blocks at a time until early to mid-August, the corps will turn the pipe in the opposite direction and head south into Margate, where it expects to be expanding beaches and fashioning dunes for two months.

"One of the two hopper dredges scheduled to do the work is now down for maintenance for approximately two months so we had to change the schedule," Stephen Rochette, a spokesman for the corps based in Philadelphia, wrote in an email.

He said one dredge, the R.N. Weeks, required mandatory maintenance beginning Friday and will be out of commission for as long as 60 days.

That change, along with delays on a Florida project and other weather-related issues, have "rendered the previous schedule unachievable," he said.

As a result, contractor Weeks Marine will use a pipeline dredge to complete beach fill in Atlantic City and Ventnor. Work in Ventnor will now start in late August or early September, he said, "after the pipeline dredge completes work in Atlantic City."

In the meantime, he said, the hopper dredge B.E. Lindholm will continue working at the border of Ventnor and Margate to "establish a significant pad area for operations through July 5."

"Once complete, beachfill operations will then progress south from the pipe landing into Margate to construct the protective beach and dune throughout Margate, and then continue south into Longport to complete the remaining work on the contract," Rochette said. Beaches will be closed 1,000 feet at a time, and work will run 24 hours a day.

The announcement prompted rejoicing in Ventnor, whose officials supported the dune project and felt burned by timing that seemed like it would cause maximum inconvenience in July and early August. Commissioner Lance Landgraf, who is also director of planning and real estate for the  Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, was particularly upset by the timing previously announced.

"Now we can breathe a sigh of relief and are extremely thankful for the change in schedule, giving us our entire stretch of beaches back for most if not all of the rest of the summer," Landgraf said in a statement posted on Facebook by the city. "We have worked closely with the Army Corps and the NJDEP [N.J. Department of Environmental Protection] over the last several months, and we are grateful that they were true to their word that work in Ventnor would not disrupt our entire summer."

In another comment on Facebook, Landgraf attributed the change in plans to "patience and perseverance."

Friday morning, Landgraf told WPG radio host Harry Hurley that Ventnor's cooperation was appreciated by the corps and created some goodwill. He said it was "certainly fair" to question whether Margate's resistance played a role in the town's winding up with, as Hurley put it, "the short straw." But Landgraf also said the current schedule was the original one. He dismissed any suggestion that his job with a state authority played any role.

"This is not revenge against Margate," Landgraf said.

But in Margate, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting the project in court, there was immediate skepticism. People who object to the project say the dunes are unnecessary, will do nothing to ease back bay flooding, and will alter the character of the beaches. Christie has berated objectors in Margate and Bay Head as "selfish folks and their selfish lawyers."

Margate has still not signed an agreement with the Army Corps, according to Mayor Mike Becker. A federal judge ruled the work can proceed.

Rochette said the schedule changes were tied to equipment demands and the different functions of hopper vs. pipeline dredges.

In an email Friday morning, he explained: "The pipeline cutterhead dredge is stationary, so it can only pump so far. It cannot pump Margate and Longport, unlike a hopper dredge, which is more like a ship that transits back and forth.

"The pipeline cutterhead is able to do Ventnor as it's within pumping range for it. So the one hopper will do Margate and Longport, and the one pipeline cutterhead will do Atlantic City and Ventnor. Previously the two hoppers would be to able to work much faster but with only one working for the next two months, Weeks Marine had to adjust the sequence and operation."