Beaufort’s waterfront seawall needs fixing, the marina deal is under scrutiny. What’s next?
Picturesque Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park on the Beaufort River in downtown Beaufort is sometimes called Beaufort’s crown jewel. Besides serving as the location where the city hosts many of its festivals, its promenade is a favorite place to walk for residents and visitors alike. Boats tie up at two smaller public docks or pay to park in a city-owned marina managed by Safe Harbor Marinas. It’s a beautiful spot with amazing views of the water.
But now one of the Lowcountry’s most recognizable public amenities is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Some of the hundreds of concrete pilings below the waterline that support the 45-year-old park are beginning to wear thin or even break, a situation that requires immediate attention.
A separate but related issue involves a lease with Safe Harbor Marinas to manage the city-owned marina located within the park. That lease needs to be renegotiated after the city discovered it had been incorrectly approved in 2019. The outcome will affect how that portion of the park is used for decades to come.
Those two issues are among the city’s most pressing as it head into 2025. Here are the latest developments:
City to hire engineering firm
Regarding the Waterfront Park seawall infrastructure, city officials reported at a work session Tuesday that they plan to hire Charleston-based McSweeney Engineers to investigate the problem and recommend solutions.
McSweeney is the same firm that conducts regular inspections of the park and brought the recent concerns to the city in June following an April inspection.
A review committee reviewed three bids and interviewed the top two companies with McSweeney the top qualified bidder, Assistant City Manager J.J. Sauve said. A contract with McSweeney still needs to be negotiated and approved. But city officials are in talks with the contractor on pricing and phasing options with the intention of bringing a contract forward in December.
McSweeney plans to partner with several other engineering firms to tackle the job, Sauve reported.
“It’s going to be a major, major undertaking,” Suave said.
One of the questions that McSweeney will need to answer is whether the current infrastructure can be repaired or the entire park needs to be replaced.
“The larger question is what are we doing about it,” City Manager Scott Marshall said. “Are we trying to repair, or are we going to have some type of a replacement? And that’s really why we want to hire this engineering company is to take us through, what are our options? What makes the most sense?”
“All options will be on the table” when it comes to fixing the park, Suave added.
Opened in 1979, the park includes a seawall and underwater “relieving platform” or support structure that is supported by 570 concrete pilings.
Between 2018 and 2022, the city spent about $1 million stabilizing the pilings.
In 2005, the park was renovated at a cost to the city of more than $8 million.
Marina lease addressed
Regarding the marina-management lease with Safe Harbor Marinas, the City Council on Tuesday voted to create a Waterfront Advisory Committee. The members of that board have not been selected yet.
The committee will gather information about the current uses of both the marina and seawall and share it with the City Council. The committee will also advise the City Council and the city manager regarding any negotiations between the city and Safe Harbor Marinas — or any third party — for the future use of the marina and seawall.
The city entered a lease agreement for management of the marina with Safe Harbor in 2019. That lease should have been approved via an ordinance but was not, Marshall said.
As a result, a new lease will need to be approved. But the oversight has also prompted a broader discussion about the marina and whether a private party should be managing it and if so what the terms should be. The current lease with Safe Harbor can potentially stretch for 40 years.
The city is now looking for three residents to appoint to that committee, which also will include one representative each from the City Council, Historic District Review Board, Planning Commission and County Council. The city manager, or a designee, and a city attorney will also be non-voting members.
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 11:25 AM.
