"The lake has always been a source of recreation: fishing, rowing, ice skating, and walking along its shoreline," Avon Historical Society president Norah Magrini told The Coaster in January. Her society had just opened its 25th historical display at the Avon Public Library, and this one was about the lake. A Monmouth County map from 1781 labels the water Duck Creek. Today it is Avon's northern border with Bradley Beach, running from Main Street east to Ocean Avenue.
This fall more people are working on Sylvan Lake than at any point in recent memory. You may have heard that the U.S. Navy is involved, and that is true. But the Navy is paying for drawings. The work most likely to reach Avon's side of the lake first is a smaller state-funded project between Second and Fourth Avenues, and it includes a planned ramp so skaters can get onto the ice in winter.
The Lake Is Filling In From Upstream
The core problem is mud. In a July 2026 letter to residents, the Borough reported that field surveys, soundings and sediment sampling had found about 100,000 cubic yards of sediment in the lake. Much of it doesn't start in Avon. The letter traces the buildup to local stormwater and to sources farther upstream, including Lake Alberta and other parts of Monmouth County.
The letter also says Avon and Bradley Beach tried for years to fund a dredging project and couldn't, because of the cost. That history explains why outside money matters so much here, and why its limits matter just as much.
Why a Naval Weapons Station Has a Seat at the Table
In September 2025, the Navy and Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute extended their cooperative agreement with Naval Weapons Station Earle through 2029. The extension added $4.2 million from the Department of Defense's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, known as REPI, for storm-resilience work at the installation and in nearby communities. On its official site, the REPI program describes its purpose as cost-shared projects that protect military missions, including work that makes installations more resilient.
Most of that $4.2 million is going elsewhere. About $3 million will build a living shoreline along the Raritan Bayshore at Cliffwood Beach in Aberdeen Township. For Sylvan Lake, the agreement pays to continue design work for dredging parts of the lake and reusing the sediment to give a more natural edge to sections of the north side that now have concrete walls and bulkheading. The announcement doesn't say how much of the money goes to the lake.
The Sylvan Lake Joint Commission's September 16, 2026 project table spells out the limits. The current scope takes the concept to roughly 30 to 60 percent of a finished design. That is enough for a pre-application meeting with NJDEP, but it is not a permit package. More funding will be needed to get the project ready for construction funding next year.
What the Drawing Shows So Far
Princeton Hydro is the design consultant. A technical advisory committee coordinated by the American Littoral Society meets monthly to review the work, and its members include elected officials from both towns, the Sylvan Lake Commission, the Urban Coast Institute and the U.S. Navy. The commission's table lists the REPI team leaders as Julie Schumacher of the American Littoral Society, Marty McHugh of Groundwater & Environmental Services, and Thomas Herrington of the Urban Coast Institute.
At the committee's June 26 meeting, Princeton Hydro presented an updated concept with three main changes:
- The planned living shoreline moves closer to the existing shoreline.
- Most of the proposed forebays are dropped, but the Main Street Forebay stays.
- Four or five fishing access points are expected, plus a fishing pier on the east side.
Princeton Hydro is also estimating how much sediment will shift inside the lake, which will help decide how much material may need to go to a landfill. At the September 4 meeting, the committee agreed to meet again in September to refine the plan and prepare for a stakeholder meeting in the October/November timeframe. No date has been posted yet. Any design or work needs approval from both Avon and Bradley Beach.
That stakeholder meeting is the public's first look at a lake designed around fishing spots and a pier. Building any of it still depends on money that doesn't exist yet.
The Funded Piece Sits Between Second and Fourth Avenues
Avon's own shoreline project is much further along. If you have walked the Avon side, you have seen the first two phases. The contractor that built the 2019 phase describes 1,189 linear feet of restored shoreline, coir matting and logs under the plantings, 277 coastal shrubs, a 30,769-square-foot pollinator meadow, three planted-rock bioswales, and new habitat for waterbirds such as herons. In December 2022, NJDEP announced a $490,768 grant to Avon for Phase 2, aimed at reducing nonpoint-source pollution.
The plantings also changed which birds use the lake. Magrini told The Coaster that Canada geese lived at the lake for several years but that the living shoreline made it too hard for them to land. The lake still has swans, snapping turtles, mallard ducks and fish.
Phase 3 is the last section, from Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue. According to the commission's September table, Avon received a $700,000 DEP water quality grant to finish it using a design DEP has already approved. Work is expected to begin in fall 2026, and a ramp near Fourth Avenue is planned so people can get onto the ice for winter skating. No public bid result, contract award or start date had been posted as of the Borough's September 28 agenda. That agenda listed "Living Shoreline Invasive Species Control and Phase 3" as a workshop topic.
That item reflects something the commission has been discussing all year: keeping the earlier phases healthy. The town will maintain Phase 1, and Down to Earth Landscaping, which built Phase 2, will maintain that section. Down to Earth is also preparing a proposal to deal with phragmites at the east end. At the commission's July meeting, members talked about writing a shared maintenance schedule and having the towns address knotweed and phragmites, possibly by hiring a contractor.
Who Is Working on the Lake This Fall
The design and Phase 3 are only two of the projects underway. The commission's September 16 table tracks all of them:
| Project | Who is doing it | Funding | Status as of mid-September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dredging and restoration design | Princeton Hydro, REPI team | Department of Defense | Concept being refined; stakeholder meeting targeted for October/November |
| Avon living shoreline, Phase 3 | Not yet announced | $700,000 NJDEP grant | Work expected to begin fall 2026 |
| Bradley Beach bulkhead | Earthworks, Inc. | NJDOT | Underway since July 6; on schedule |
| Promenade/bulkhead extension on Ocean Avenue | Catel | New Jersey Boardwalk Preservation Fund | Underway since July 6; on schedule |
| East-end gate repair | Designed by CME | Avon and Bradley Beach cost share | Working after temporary repairs; permanent fix awaiting DEP authorization and county approval of funding |
Across the Water on the Bradley Beach Side
The work most visible from Avon this fall is on the opposite bank. In May, Bradley Beach awarded the bulkhead contract to Earthworks, Inc., the lowest of six bidders, at $1,096,600. Soil dug out for the bulkhead is going to the nearby promenade extension along Ocean Avenue as fill.
The schedule Earthworks submitted in June called for the path, curb and amenities to be finished by October 6, stormwater device and pipe work from October 6 through October 31, and site restoration from November 1 to 3. That was the contractor's projection, and Bradley Beach posts updates on its Sylvan Lake project page.
At the east end, the outfall pipe under the dunes has been replaced. The commission later noted several small holes in the section that runs into the ocean, and the beach patrol put flags at that spot for safety. The section under Ocean Avenue is partly clogged, and that is one reason the gate repair now includes cleaning and video inspection.
The Upstream Question Still Open
None of these projects stops sediment from coming down from Lake Alberta in Neptune. The commission reports that the Monmouth County Engineer's Office has finished mapping the pipes that carry those flows, and that the Neptune Township engineer is doing related studies. Talks with the county suggest it may be able to provide a dredging crew if DEP permits come through. Each borough may also qualify for up to $300,000 a year in open space grants. The commission's own wording is that further coordination with the county will follow once the overall restoration plan is further along.
So the stakeholder meeting this fall matters for more than one reason. It is where Avon residents will first see where the fishing access points and east-side pier would go, and the plan that comes out of it is what any later request for county or construction funding will be built on. The commission's minutes and agendas are posted on the Borough's Sylvan Lake Commission page.
The lake is part of what you see from the streets along Avon's northern edge. If you'd like a local view of how changes like the Phase 3 shoreline and the Bradley Beach promenade figure into the blocks nearby, Shire Realty has followed this shoreline for more than 40 years. Speak with a Jersey Shore real estate expert who is keeping an eye on the Fourth Avenue work this winter.
