Things look fine on the Promenade, but a closer look reveals some cracks. “We drive by it all the time. We walk on it all the time,” city Manager Paul Dietrich told City Council on Tuesday. “But sometimes you miss areas of concern.”
In the coming years, extensive work is on the way to expand and improve the seaside walkway. An engineer’s report, posted to the city’s website, describes the need for preservation work as dire.
Dietrich outlined plans to use more than $6.7 million in state funding for boardwalk renovations to address those concerns, as well as to increase the accessibility of the Promenade, adding ramps in some places where now there are only steps.
“Essentially, we’d be building on top of that,” Dietrich said. That work could also start in the fall, he said, with some help from Cape May County to cover the local share of the costs. Plans call for a taller seawall topped with a walkway, extending to Wilmington Avenue.