Mantoloking, Brick anxiously await steel wall on ocean to protect towns
“Steel sheets have been used in smaller protection projects in New Jersey, but because of its length, this project is “a little unusual,” Robert Mainberger, senior vice president for project engineer Hatch Mott MacDonald, told Mantoloking officials at a recent council meeting.
The DEP initially estimated a mid-November start date for the project but is no longer holding firm to that. Still, officials say, work will surely begin before the end of the year.
However, no work can start until all the easements are obtained.
William Ward, a Morristown attorney who specializes in eminent domain cases, said the DEP’s timeline is unrealistic. He said it’s going to take much longer to get the remaining easements through eminent domain, a process by which a government entity can take private property for public use.
By the time properties are appraised, monetary offers are sent to the owners and negotiations take place, it would be January before the towns get the easements, he said. “Either by negotiation or condemnation, it will be by the first quarter of 2014,” he said of the start date.”
Spoto, MaryAnn. NJ.com 18 October 2013.