Seaside Heights to build seawall to protect boardwalk

Seaside Heights to build seawall to protect boardwalk

The Seaside Heights boardwalk was completely washed away by Superstorm Sandy. When the borough builds the new boardwalk, it will also build a concrete seawall on the beach to protect the boardwalk and beachfront homes and businesses from storm surges.

The mayor said the wall will be 2 feet higher than the boardwalk.

"We thought it would be the best protection, we thought with a 50-year warranty it would hold up," Mayor William Akers said. "The bottom line is you need protection. We all understand now that the way it was didn't work so we need to do something different."

But some say that could do more harm than good.

Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club said seawalls don't work. He said that during a storm the waves will go over and around the concrete wall. He also said that during high tide the wall will just speed up erosion on the beach.

"When the waves come in and they hit the wall because it doesn't disperse the energy, it actually forces the waves to go straight down," Tittel said. "It causes your beaches to erode a lot quicker and a lot faster than they would normally if you had natural dunes."

Construction on the boardwalk begins next week. The seawall will be built right after. The hope is that construction will all be complete before Memorial Day weekend.