Margate’s bayfront promenade is partially completed.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE – The city plans to open a completed section of the new promenade being constructed along the newly raised bulkhead on Amherst Avenue.
The contractor has completed about half of the decking, and lighting, new stainless steel cable fencing and handicapped access ramps have been installed in a section close to Washington Avenue.
Completion of the project has been delayed due to supply chain problems caused by the global coronavirus epidemic.
The $2 million promenade and $1.5 million bulkhead replacement project were scheduled to be completed by Memorial Day, but the shipments of the imported Ipe wood used for the promenade decking was split into two deliveries. The first load of decking was delivered on June 21 and the contractor immediately began installation.
The second load is “lost at sea,” engineer Ed Dennis Jr. said Thursday, July 15, and has not arrived in the country.
“They are still working with what they have, and we are waiting for an update on when the last batch will be delivered to the site,” Dennis said. “This didn’t go the way we expected.”
Capping and stainless steel cable fencing is completed along the bulkhead
As soon as the material is received, the contractor will complete installation, he said.
Nevertheless, the commissioners agreed to open the completed portion of the promenade once the lighting is finished.
“It would seem to me we can open up a portion of this even if the rest of that lumber doesn’t come,” Administrator Richard Deaney said.
Commissioner John Amodeo said the capping for the bulkhead is completed, four of the nine light standards are installed, and the promenade decking is completed north of the area that services the Island Aqua Park.
“We will look at whatever we can do to open a portion of the promenade. It looks great…we get nothing but compliments on it. We just want this project to be done,” Dennis said.
Dennis also said a contractor would complete by Thursday evening the timing of the lights along Atlantic Avenue, where a controversial road diet has been completed. The project restriped the roadway, turning it from two lanes in each direction with a narrow bike lane, into one lane in each direction with widened bike lanes and a center turn lane.
Margate Police Chief Matthew Hankinson said the retiming project has improved the flow of traffic along the avenue.
“Seems like traffic is flowing in a good way,” he said.
He previously said the road diet has slowed traffic down to the 25-miles-per-hour speed limit and made it safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Dennis said a controller can be installed in the light standards to maintain the timing in the event of a power outage. The controllers will also maintain the synchronization when the city reactivates the stop lights after putting them on flash for the off season.
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