City of Beaufort weighs three options to repair historic waterfront, process could take 3-5 years

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WTOC) - City leaders in Beaufort say they have several options to consider repairing their historic waterfront, which closed this summer.

“We want this park to be not only more permanent than the one we have now, but to be a lot nicer and appealing to the public,” Mayor of Beaufort, Phil Cromer, said.

For nearly three months, the promenade area of Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort has been closed due to safety concerns following an analysis by the city that revealed several structural issues, including significant deterioration and overstressed piles.

The process is expected to take 3-5 years to repair and will carry a hefty price tag; city leaders hope they won’t have to foot most of the bill.

“What we are going to try to do is for the city to not come up with very much money at all. We are going to look at outside grants from the state and federal,” Cromer said.

After looking into ways to fix it, engineers brought the city eight ideas.

One of the ideas was not to do anything with the area and just leave it, but city leaders say that wasn’t even an option.

So, they dwindled the list of eight down to three.

The first option is to possibly rebuild a replica of the current relieving platform or something a little smaller with the pilings.

Another option is replacing the structure with a seawall and backfilling behind the wall with dirt. This means that the entire park, which is currently a platform supported by pilings, would be sitting on top of dirt.

Then the third option is to do a hybrid approach, which includes fixed and floating structures.

With each option, the city is also looking into whether or not commercial vessels can tie up to a seawall or a similar structure near the park, while also making sure the next option is more resilient than the latter.

“We’re going to take a look at the marina, the marina parking lot, the area here, and the businesses on Bay Street to see what we can do to make us more resilient,” Cromer said.

And they even hope to open a popular spot for boaters while they work through the process.

“We’re going to try and reopen the day dock,” Cromer said. “We want to get that open as soon as possible.”

City leaders are expected to meet with engineers again on October 6 to get ideas on what these options will look like.

Mayor Cromer says that they also plan on holding a community input session or community charrette on the promenade’s future in the coming months.