The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has completed a $1.1 million boardwalk replacement project in time for the summer season. The new boardwalk stretches 800 feet from McClintock Street to Seaview Avenue and is now open to the public.
“I hope people feel joy and gladness when they look at the ocean here,” said Michael Badger, president of the Camp Meeting Association.
The Camp Meeting bore the entire cost of the replacement project.
Badger said the boardwalk, once called a “plank-walk,” dates back in Ocean Grove, which was founded in 1869, to at least 1877 when Rev. Elwood Stokes, the first OCCMA president, wrote about it being a “highway of holiness.”
Project Coordinator Bill Bailey said this section of the boardwalk was not badly damaged during Superstorm Sandy but that it was merely “aged out” and needed to be replaced. The new boardwalk project installed 28,800-square-foot of decking and 1,800 linear-feet of railings.
The project began in March and represents the next phase of the OGCMA’s ongoing efforts to improve Ocean Grove’s boardwalk for residents and visitors alike.
“We are thrilled that this phase of our boardwalk replacement has been completed,” Badger said. “Ever since Hurricane Sandy, we have been focused on replacing damaged sections with the new, durable materials and state-of-the-art engineering that will withstand the next storm.”
Following the demolition of the old section, which included removing existing boards and pilings, the Bird Construction Company (Bayville NJ) drilled and placed 280 new pilings twenty feet below ground level. All of the infrastructure and decking above the pilings is new. The current construction seamlessly tied into the previously repaired boardwalk and Ocean Pavilion infrastructure. The Trex decking (95 percent recycled materials – splinter free) that matches the previously repaired sections, north and south, which were previously installed after Sandy.
The project was overseen by Bailey, Project Coordinator; Jeff Force, Director of Operations; and Peter Avakian, the Camp Meeting’s Project Engineer and Manager.
