After Years of ‘Red Tape,’ Brick Township Park Will Get Renovations, Breakwater Protection

Mallard Point Park, Brick, N.J., Oct. 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

A Brick Township park that officials have spent years working to obtain permits to rebuild will finally have its long-sought renovation and protection plan come to fruition.

First discussed in 2016 after a successful similar project at Bay Harbor Park, the township council this week ordered the solicitation of bids for the redesign, re-engineering and construction of a rock breakwater and “living shoreline” at Mallard Point Park off Tunes Brook Drive, along the Tunes Brook branch of Kettle Creek. The small park, with a beach and room for a few recreational activities, is considered one of the township’s “neighborhood parks” versus a “destination park” like Windward Beach.

Council President Derrick Ambrosino said the township will open sealed bids Aug. 6 and expects to award a contract at the Aug. 12 council meeting. The project specifications were drawn up by engineering firm CME Associates.

---

Get Brick News Updates Daily Your email address:* Please enter all required fields Correct invalid entries

The park will serve as the second example of an ambitious effort on the part of officials to protect the shoreline along the creek and improve the aquatic environment through a new breakwater and engineered shoreline restoration design that will support plant and marine life. Though the project has been in the cards for several years, it has never gotten underway due to a lengthy state environmental permitting process, despite the fact that another park – Bay Harbor Park, also on Kettle Creek – served as a pilot and has been seen as a resounding success.

Mallard Point Park, Brick, N.J., Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Current plans for park amenities include areas for fishing, kayaking and crabbing, as well as a “tot lot” play area for small children.

The waterway upon which the park is located represents the border between Brick and Toms River, and township officials have long planned a project to replace many of the rusting and decaying amenities with fresh new ones, and improve the beach. The township has received a $712,000 grant from the Garden State Preservation Trust, and total grant funding of about $770,000, which will cover the majority of the expenses of the project.

The project was funded nearly five years ago, but has been bogged down in the state and federal permitting process ever since. Parks Director Rob Burns said this spring that Mallard Park was on the agenda for 2025, among other projects in town. The project secured permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection some time ago, however approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came more recently.