Boat access restored in downtown Beaufort in time for Water Festival. Here’s how
After a year of being off limits, river access has been restored to downtown Beaufort, allowing boaters to pull up to the popular dock and walk to Bay Street restaurants and shops.
Admittance to the main street corridor via the Beaufort River comes at a critical time -- the city’s 10-day Water Festival begins Friday.
The mega celebration of the Lowcountry lifestyle and maritime heritage, held each July, attracts thousands of visitors to the state’s second-oldest city for nightly music acts on the shores of the Beaufort River, a supper featuring the South Carolina cuisine known as the Lowcountry boil, daily arts and crafts market, sports tournaments, talent show, bed races and blessing of the fleet.
On Wednesday, the stage was being raised at the pavilion where the concerts will be performed.
Promenade closed
A year ago, just days before the start of the 2025 Water Festival, the city, out of an abundance of caution, banned access to the 35-foot-wide promenade, the sliver of Waterfront Park fronting the river, after it was learned that some of its concrete support structures were failing. There was nothing wrong with the dock. But it’s attached to the promenade so it closed, too.
The promenade will remain closed for a few years until it is replaced with a new structure. The city is advertising for a multidisciplinary consultant team to provide marine, coastal, geotechnical, and structural engineering, landscape architecture, environmental review support, permitting, grant writing and administration, public engagement, bidding assistance for a multi-million job to preserve the promenade.
But this spring, city officials decided access to the dock could be restored, even if the promenade was closed, by modifying the gangway. It hired O’Quinn Marine for the $299,000 job and gave the local company marching orders to get the job done by July 17, the start of the Water Festival.
The job involved extending a new gangway over the top of the closed promenade. Now the day dock and water front park are reconnected. The work was finished this week.
Docks and the park are open
The city is reminding the public that the gangway over the promenade was installed for access to the dock only and “there will be no trespassing onto the promenade.” Anyone who is caught trying to access the closed promenade, the city says, will be prosecuted.
Scott Lee, Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee, said restoration of the dock is important for his customers who visit his downtown business by boat.
Lee and other downtown business owners are trying to get the word out that Waterfront Park is open except for the 35-foot-wide promenade.
Not only has the day dock been reopened, Lee adds, but the dinghy dock on the other end of the park, which was damaged by Tropical Storm Helene, has been fixed and reopened as well. It’s capacity was actually expanded, Lee noted.
New fencing the city put up this spring also provides unobstructed views of the river even though the promenade is closed, he noted. Previous fencing was chain-link and taller and difficult to see through.
This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 11:28 AM.
