"I had hoped the money would be in the 2003 budget and it isn't," Saxton said. "The pre- engineering funding and design work has been underway since 1993. The Army Corps of Engineers is ready to go. The residents of Long Beach Island are ready to go. Congress has spent millions to study and design the LBI project. Now we need to push ahead and start construction. No funding this year means the project will remain in limbo."

Saxton wrote to Chairman Sonny Callahan, a high-ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee who heads its Energy and Water Subcommittee, to help move the project. Saxton said he hopes the strong relationship he what built with the retiring Callahan over the years will yield the necessary funding to begin construction. Saxton and Callahan both came to Congress in 1985.

Saxton is concerned that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not start the beach project in 2003 as expected. This spring, the corps has delayed some beach construction projects that use studies and designs from before 1998. The corps informed Rep. Saxton that the since the LBI project uses studies less than three years old it is not subject to the delay.

"In point of fact, on-going projects with older preconstruction studies have been shelved," Saxton said. "But our studies on LBI are newer and should not be an impediment to starting construction."

In April, Saxton called for a recent Army Corps of Engineers analysis of the benefit of beach projects to be released to the public. Subsequently, portions of the study made public by the media showed further evidence of the positive effect that beach replenishment projects have on the economy.

"Research has repeatedly proven that beach replenishment projects have favorable cost-to- benefit ratios," Saxton said. "The LBI project is estimated to generate nearly $2 of benefit for every $1 spent. The administration's own studies indicate a clear economic benefit from beach projects."

On the bright side, Saxton said the President's 2003 budget released in February funds beach replenishment projects at the 65/35 percent federal/state level, and have an overall increase from $13 million to $16 million for New Jersey. Also, the Administration included key beach pre-construction funds that in recent years were not included and had to be painstakingly added by Congress.

The corps intends to build a 17-mile-long berm on LBI as a result of a series of storms which battered the barrier island in 1991 and 1992. Upon completion, periodic beach renewal work would be required every seven years for shore protection.

Last year the Congress funded $450,000 toward planning the LBI project. In 2002, $263,000 is allocated for the last pre-engineering design phase of this project. The funding for a construction start in 2003 is in jeopardy. The construction, expected to cost $50 million over a period of multiple years, is currently authorized by Congress at the 65 percent federal funding level.