Ocean City awards $4.97 million
for two more pumping stations.

Ocean City Council awarded a $4.97 million contract on Aug. 20 to Richard E. Pierson Construction Co. Inc. of Pilesgrove for a flood-mitigation project in the Haven Avenue area. The work builds two underground stormwater pumping stations rather than the single station most of these projects have used. One goes in a public right-of-way next to the Stainton Wildlife Refuge near 25th Street, and the other next to the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority facility near the corner of 20th Street and Bay Avenue.

The project protects the area between West Avenue and Bay Avenue from 19th Street to 26th Street, and city spokesman Doug Bergen said it will bring further relief to a stretch of Haven Avenue from 26th to 28th. Work is expected to begin in September or early fall and be completed by next Easter. Mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement that the stations have been a great success and have changed the quality of life for residents in flood-prone areas.

The mechanism is straightforward. A pumping station intercepts floodwater and channels it back into the bay much faster than it would drain off the streets on its own after a coastal storm. Ocean City has built them across the island in recent years, and the same approach is used in Sea Isle City and Avalon. Preliminary designs are already finished for the city's next project, in the Ocean City Homes neighborhood between 52nd and 56th streets.

For an owner, the value is that this converts a soft question into a documented one. Buyers at the shore ask about street flooding early, and the honest answer for a low-lying block has been anecdotal. A funded contract, a named contractor, a defined boundary and a completion target are the kind of specifics that can be handed to a buyer's agent, and they apply to the blocks in the project area rather than to the island in general.