Loud, pounding noise could last at least a year once Beaufort’s $66M promenade project begins
Beaufort residents and Bay Street businesses will have to put up with at least a year of loud banging during the reconstruction of their pretty but failing promenade along the Beaufort River.
And replacing it will cost at least $66 million.
The sobering new details about the highly watched reconstruction planning for the Beaufort River entrance into the city’s downtown were shared for the first time during a meeting of a Waterfront Advisory Committee Monday.
Committee members were appointed to study the city’s most pressing capital project and make recommendations to the City Council on how to proceed with preserving the beloved promenade along the Beaufort River.
Building a new promenade and support structure underneath it will be noisy because it will involve using a diesel-powered jack hammer to pound some 600 pilings into the mud and limestone rock beneath the river, said Bill Barna of McSweeney Engineers, a city consultant.
The loud pounding will last for a year to 18 months. The park, he said, won’t “be a very enjoyable place to be during that process.”
“It’s going to be pretty invasive,” Barna said, “as far as sound goes.”
What’s the timeline for the Beaufort project?
Duncan O’Quinn of O’Quinn Marine Construction said he thinks the promenade can be reconstructed in 18 months.
But that doesn’t include the time it will take to get permits and find the funding.
The city’s timeline has the promenade reopening in 2029.
Vibrations from the pounding will have to be closely monitored especially at the nearby 50-year-old marina seawall, said O’Quinn.
The new piles will have to be driven into the limestone, O’Quinn said.
Which promenade design option has been recommended?
The city’s consultants are recommending the complete replacement of the promenade and the relieving platform underneath it.
That design option, said Barna, is durable and should last 75 years. A big plus in its favor is that it will be easiest to permit, Barna said.
A key part of the new promenade is it will be raised to 8 feet, making it more capable of handling flooding. It will be built in a way that it can be raised to 9 feet in the future. The current elevation of the boardwalk is 6 feet.
How much will it cost?
The estimate cost is $66,482,075.
It was the first solid cost estimate provided to the city since it closed the 40-foot-wide, 1,200-foot-long promenade in July after inspections showed age and saltwater were quickly deteriorating the concrete pilings that support the platform.
How will it look?
O’Quinn said the hard part of the project won’t be construction or the engineering. The hard part will be figuring out what the park will look like as a result of the construction of the new promenade.
Because the platform is being raised at least two feet, that will affect the elevation of the rest of the park. Officials have discussed ways to ease elevation differences through landscaping and stairs.
Another aesthetic issue that’s being kicked around is how the raising of the promenade will look from the Beaufort River, where boats approach to dock and do business in town.
Right now a fascia panel on the front of the promenade blocks the view underneath the promenade, where the concrete pilings and a seawall are located. But the new boardwalk might not have one.
One issue of concern is the buildup of silt under the boardwalk. The buildup has been so bad it is hard to reach many of the current concrete pilings that support the promenade to inspect them. The fascia panel is one reason for that buildup because it restricts the tidal flows.
Barna and McQuinn say they think the removal of the fascia panel and the new design of the relieving platform will cause the normal tidal flow to return and dissipate the sediment.
What’s next?
The City Council is expected to take up the recommendation from the committee to pursue Option 2 June 9. Once the City Council signs off, the city will put out a request for proposals to design the project.
