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The reconstruction of the Atlantic City boardwalk continues with the completion of a seawall along the Absecon Inlet and a boardwalk built above it.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Hackensack contractor J. Fletcher Creamer & Son completed the project, which took 99,000 tons of stone to build the 1,776-foot-long seawall.

For decades the boardwalk had been exposed to the elements and was damaged frequently by storms.

“This project will protect the Inlet section of the City from future storms and allows many properties along Maine Avenue, which would frequently flood to be developed,” Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam said at a dedication ceremony on Friday. “This project will lead to new development and the rebirth of the Inlet section, which would not have happened in the past.”

Funding for the $38.6 million project came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The city also funded a portion of the project.

The project is part of a $50 million project that will connect the boardwalk from Ventnor City to Atlantic City’s Historic Gardner’s Basin, with the next phase slated to begin later this year.