SAND MOVEMENT STUDY AT LONG BRANCH, N.J. 



For some time engineers doing beach erosion and shore protection 

 work have considered the practicability of nourishing eroded shorelines 

 with material dredged from nearby harbors „ 



A cooperative study between the New York District and the Beach 

 Erosion Board to test the feasibility of using the disposal of dredged 

 material to nourish eroded shores in the vicinity of coastal harbors 

 was authorized by the Chief of Engineers on 3 February 1948 to test the 

 method » 



Division of Work 



The New Tork District dredged, transported and dumped about 

 600,000 cubic yards of suitable material in an area off the coast of 

 Long Branch, New Jersey, and also provided for all navigation aids at 

 the dump area The Beach Erosion Board performed all surveys and other 

 work necessary to determine the movement of the dumped material, and 

 prepared reports on the experiment „ 



Location and Description of Project Area 



The project area, comprising the city of Long Branch, New Jersey 

 and vicinity, is located on the North Atlantic Coast of the United States 

 about eleven miles south of Sandy Hook, the southern entrance point to 

 New York harbor. The city of Long Branch is highly developed as a 

 summer resort, and lies on a slight rise in the surrounding terrain at 

 about elevation ?4+0 feet. The terrain slopes seaward to an elevation 

 of /20 feet and terminates at the crest of a timber bulkhead which retains 

 Ocean Avenue . Immediately below the bulkhead is a relatively steep, 

 narrow, yellow sand beach intersected by numerous heavy rubble mound 

 groins o Crossing the beach seaward from the center of the city is a 

 fishing and recreation pier 900 feet in length, which terminates in about 

 24 feet of water. 



Northward from Long Branch the land lowers and extends to the north 

 as a barrier beach which is less than 300 feet wide at its narrowest 

 point o Along the greater part of this stretch of coast, the beach is 

 backed by a high rubble mound seawall, designed to prevent storm waves 

 from breaching the barrier „ 



The area covered by detailed studies in this investigation extends 

 from the Long Branch fishing and recreation pier northward to Shrewsbury 

 Rocks, which are seaward from the Monmouth Beach Coast Guard station. 

 The dump area, 3700 feet long and 750 feet wide, lies about l/2 mile 

 from shore in 38 feet of water, with its southerly limit on an east-west 

 line about 1500 feet north of the Long Branch pier. 



