Union Beach Coastal Storm Risk

Union Beach, NJ occupies a 1.8 square mile area of land along the coast of Raritan Bay.  The area is in low elevation regions with numerous small creeks providing drainage, resulting in low-lying structures in the area experience flooding caused by coastal storm inundation.  This problem has progressively worsened in recent years. The area was also devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.  USACE Fact Sheet

The Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay project consists of constructing a new 20,900-foot levee/floodwall to protect the low-lying residential and commercial structures in the area.  Strategic Value Solutions, Inc. (SVS) conducted a virtual Value Engineering workshop to identify and develop alternative design concepts to improve the overall value of the project.

The VE study focused on enhancing the line of protection alignment, improving the pump station design, optimizing slide/sluice gates, eliminating unnecessary drainage features, and revising the design of levee and floodwall cross-sections.  The proposed VE savings were approximately 50% of the capital cost.

“Some of the ideas created by this team have never been heard of or considered by the New York District team, which is a great credit to the contractor as we have completed many Coastal Storm Risk Projects of this kind in the past.”

– Steve Weinberg, Chief, Civil Works Section, USACE New York District