Bombshell announcement: Beaufort forced to close promenade week of July 4 holiday
Beaufort closed its famous promenade fronting the Beaufort River — the city’s “front porch” — Monday morning for public safety reasons after getting a report over the weekend that said the platform structure underneath it was “overstressed.”
The unexpected closure of the iconic boardwalk, a favorite stop for tourists and locals alike, could never come at a good time. But the timing was particularly terrible.
The July 4 holiday is Friday. As fences blocking the public from the waterfront walk were being erected by city workers Monday morning, a giant American flag was being unfurled on Woods Memorial Bridge in preparation for the Independence Day celebration. The closure also comes 11 days before the the city’s biggest event, the 10-day Water Festival, which is headquartered along the waterfront, drawing thousands to the area.
City Manager Scott Marshall said public’s safety was the overriding factor in his decision to close the promenade, which will remain closed indefinitely.
The unstable promenade, considered the city’s “crown jewel,” remained open on Saturday as thousands of people were in the park for the annual dragon boat races.
Waterfront Park remains open as the closure primarily targets a 40-foot-wide, 1,200-foot-long stretch on the water’s edge side of the park, basically the entire length of the promenade.
In addition to the closing of the waterside portion of the park, the day dock and playground will be inaccessible until further notice.
Hundreds of people stroll or sit in swinging benches along that stretch, enjoying the views of the Beaufort River and Woods Memorial Bridge crossing it. The boardwalk and boat traffic often translates to business for downtown shops and restaurants on Bay Street.
“It’s huge,” Chris Johnson, owner of Q on Bay, a popular restaurant on Bay Street whose backside seating fronts the Beaufort River, said of the closure and its impact on business. “It’s going to affect us.”
Besides the boardwalk, the restaurant gets a significant amount of traffic from those who use the now-closed playground and day dock, Johnson added.
The city marina remains open and accessible.
The promenade is supported by what is known as a “relieving platform” that is held up by concrete pilings driven into the river floor. A recent structural assessment found that those concrete pilings are “overstressed,” prompting the closure.
“Basically the structure itself is under maximum load at any one time and if you put people onto it it is beyond maximum load and could create a safety issue,” Deputy City Manager JJ Sauve told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet.
Sauve said the city is doing what it can to preserve as much of the view of the Beaufort River as possible for visitors.
The major development for the busy downtown corridor drew city officials such as Marshall and Sauve to the waterfront early Monday morning as public works employees were busy erecting metal fencing along the promenade.
The decision to close the area came after the city received a structural analysis of the park at 6 p.m. Friday, Marshall said.
The analysis, conducted by McSweeney Engineers and JMT, indicated structural concerns and identified significant deterioration and overstressed piles within the platform structure.
City officials worked over the weekend to put a closure plan in place, Marshall said.
“We would prefer not to limit access to such a significant portion of the park,” Marshall said. “However, public safety is paramount, and we felt like our decisions should be driven by safety of life as a primary consideration.”
City officials met Beaufort Water Festival Committee representatives on Sunday morning to discuss the impacts on the city’s premier festival.
The closure of the promenade will affect the footprint of the Water Festival, said Water Festival Commodore Todd Stowe. “Think of it like it’s a front porch,” he said of the promenade.
“It’s obviously going to change things,” Stowe said. “Right now, nothing has been canceled.”
How the development will change the festival is still developing, he said. One change will be the moving of the location of the children’s toad fishing tournament. Festival coordinators were planning to meet Monday evening to strategize.
City Spokeswoman Ashley Brandon said city officials were planning to meet with next with downtown business owners. “You can still access the park,” Brandon emphasized.
The city has known since last year that the relieving platform under the facia area near the water had severe problems.
A report presented to the City Council in June 24 by McSweeney Engineers said the 50-year-old underwater relieving platform was in “severe deterioration.” Shortly thereafter, the city stopped allowing cruise ships to dock in the city. McSweeney was later hired to conduct a more thorough investigation and present options for the city. The report the city received over the weekend was part of that larger analysis, which is ongoing.
The city already has spent just over $1 million on stabilizing Waterfront pilings between 2018 and 2022. But the 2024 inspection found a marked acceleration of the piling deterioration and shoaling problems since the last inspection in 2019.
The cost of repairs or replacement of the entire park is expected to reach into the millions.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 11:04 AM.
