A $3.2M Project to Improve the Point Pleasant Canal Begins This Month

Deteriorating bulkheading along the Point Pleasant Canal’s north entrance, Dec. 2023. (Photo: USACE Philadelphia District)

A $3.2 million project to improve the bulkheading of the Point Pleasant Canal will begin this month, representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District told Shorebeat.

The work will focus on the northern mouth of the canal where it empties into the Manasquan River, where metal bulkheading has become severely deteriorated.

In June, the Army Corps awarded a contract to UH Services Group, LLC of Metairie, LA for $3.2 million to repair a portion of  steel bulkhead at the entrance of the canal’s eastern shoreline on the river side. The project received funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed in late 2021.

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The existing deteriorated structures will be demolished and removed, the Corps said in its statement. New steel sheet piling and associated features will be installed along with backfill stone, and the placement of riprap in the water. The contractor anticipates mobilizing to the site Dec. 7 to conduct diving operations at the site. Additional work will take place in phases.

The north entrance to the Point Pleasant Canal (Photo: Shorebeat)

The Point Pleasant Canal is a component of the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway, a federal navigation channel which extends from the Manasquan River to the entrance to the Cape May Canal on the Delaware Bay, a total of 117 miles. The New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway “provides a safe, reliable, and operational navigation channel for the East Coast’s largest and fifth most valuable commercial fishing fleet in the U.S.,” the statement said, plus nine U.S. Coast Guard Stations including the service’s Cape May training base.

The canal is completely located within the municipal boundaries of Point Pleasant Borough, inspiring the town’s slogan, “Top of the Inland Waterway.”