Margate takes stand about sand; city claims proposed Ventnor groin project threatens shoreline to the south

By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGATE -- A plan by the state Department of Environmental Protection to construct a groin on the beach at Martindale Avenue in Ventnor has come under scrutiny by their neighbors to the south in Margate.
The city of Margate enlisted an expert in the field of coastal research, Norbert Psuty.
Psuty reviewed the state’s plans and reported on the potential impact of the groin on the beaches of Margate. Based on the information he gathered, Margate requested the groin not be built, formally requested a public hearing, or have a minimum of reducing in the size of the groin.
Psuty, of the Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, studied the proposed plan, visited the site, and provided information to the city with a tutorial on the possible effects of the groin at a special meeting held on Feb. 2.
The plans for the project were available in Ventnor City Hall and open to a 30-day period of review that closed on Feb. 25.
Psuty, working along with Margate City Engineer Edward Walberg, put their concerns about the groin into a letter to the DEP.
Walberg summarizes Psuty as follows:
“It is likely that the beach unit between Fredericksburg Avenue and the Fishing Pier would experience the most noticeable effects because this pocket is in the general trend, limited by the bulkhead at the Fishing Pier. This portion of the beach will become more curvilinear as the effects of the groin proceed, with the arching pockets of sand trapped at the base of the Martindale groin and the projection of the Fishing Pier, and the narrowest portion located approximately mid-way between the two.
“The proposed groin will eventually interfere with the alongshore transport of sand following the recreation of the nourishment template, and it will create an offset in the alongshore trend of beach downdrift of Martindale Avenue because the continuity of the sediment transport system will have been altered,” the engineer said in his letter.
Based on the information gathered, Margate is requesting that the groin not be constructed or, at minimum, that it is reduced in size by 50 percent to minimize the impact on Margate beaches. The city is also requesting a public hearing on the groin project.
Aside from the requests made, Psuty’s examination of the proposed project has raised questions that Margate officials say need to be answered before proceeding with the project.
There are concerns that the groin, at its proposed size and scale, would leave a sharp drop between Ventnor and Margate beaches at the site and that future sand replenishment on the Ventnor side of the groin would only exacerbate the problem.
As proposed, the Ventnor groin would extend 560 feet from the concrete bulkhead at the foot of Martindale Avenue.
The initial 253 feet from the bulkhead would have an elevation of about eight feet above the mean water line. The remaining 300 feet would slope toward the water at a rate of one foot for every 30 linear feet.
The groin is intended to slow the rate of loss of sand loss.
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