communities in the study area is over 142,000. The population is greatly 

 increased by summer vacationists. About 23 percent of the shore in the 

 study area is publicly owned. The coastal area under study includes high 

 bluffs near the east and west ends and low marshlands in the intervening 

 area. Beaches generally are narrow. The bluffs supply a limited quantity 

 of beach material and a deficiency of supply results in a slow deteriora- 

 tion of the protective and recreational beaches. The shore of the study 

 area is generally protected from waves of the Atlantic Ocean by Sandy Hook. 

 The predominance of energy components is such as to produce a dominant 

 westward littoral transport of beach material except near the east end 

 of the area, but the rate of transport is generally low. The mean tidal 

 range increases from 3.8 feet at Highlands to 5.0 feet at South Amboy. The 

 highest estimated bay level, about 10 feet above sea level, occurred during 

 hurricane "Donna" in 1960. 



The District and Division Engineers developed plans for protecting the 

 shore of the study area against both erosion and hurricane damages. The 

 dual-purpose plan comprises beach fills and levees with a top elevation of 

 15 feet above mean sea level, and in the case of Keansburg the plan includes 

 three groins. Alternative plans for shore protection (erosion control) 

 alone consisting of placing beach fill to provide a berm 150 feet wide at 

 an elevation of 5.5 feet above mean sea level, or 50 feet wide at an ele- 

 vation of 10 feet in front of bluffs, were also developed. Maintenance of 

 the stability of the shore would be accomplished by periodic replenishment 

 of sand losses under either plan. The District and Division Engineers made 

 economic analyses of the foregoing plans of shore and hurricane protection, 

 and concluded that the hurricane and shore protection plans for Madison 

 Township, and Keansburg and East Keansburg are amply justified by evaluated 

 benefits, also that shore protection alone is justified for Matawan Township 

 and Union Beach. They found that public benefits justify Federal aid to 

 first costs for shore protection under the provisions of Public Law 826, 

 84th Congress, and that prospective benefits justify Federal aid to hurri- 

 cane protection under the policy requiring 30 percent local cooperation as 

 approved for hurricane protection projects in the Flood Control Act of 1958. 

 Accordingly they recommended adoption of a project by the United States for 

 the foregoing protection, the United States paying 64.8 percent of the first 

 costs thereof. 



The Beach Erosion Board concurred generally in their views that the 

 plans of protection for the shores of the study area are practical plans for 

 their respective purposes. However, it noted that the hurricane protection 

 is designed for storm surges equivalent to those of record, but not for those 

 of the maximum probable or even the standard project hurricane which might 

 occur infrequently. Accordingly, the Board stated that it is imperative that 

 local interests recognize that the plan would provide only partial hurricane 

 protection. The Board considered that the single-purpose shore protection 

 plans consisting of widening the beach to provide a berm 150 feet wide at an 

 elevation of 5.5 feet above mean sea level, or 50 feet wide at an elevation 

 of 10 feet above mean sea level in front of bluffs, are somewhat more than 



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