The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced in March that it was expediting a project to dredge the Little Egg Inlet after the U.S. Coast Guard pulled its channel markers due to dangerously shallow conditions.
However, boaters will likely have to wait until at least late summer before they are able to safely traverse the major thoroughfare between southern Long Beach Island and Brigantine.
The project cannot begin until the bid process for contractors is completed and then there is a timing restriction for work to commence due to the migrations of fish in the inlet during the late spring and early summer, according to DEP spokesman Larry Hajna.
The project is expected to dredge 1 million to 1.5 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean side of the inlet in order to create a channel that is 25 feet below mean sea level, Hajna said.