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City Backtracks on Timeline for Rockaway Beach Boardwalk

By Katie Honan | November 22, 2013 1:05pm
 The future boardwalk will be elevated above where it used to be.
The future boardwalk will be elevated above where it used to be.
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New York City Department of Parks

ROCKAWAY BEACH — The city is walking back on an official date for the completion of Rockaway Beach boardwalk, which was partially destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, saying instead that the project "could last a few years."

First Deputy Commissioner of Parks Liam Kavanagh told DNAinfo New York on Tuesday that the Parks Department was anticipating that the entire boardwalk would be complete by December 2016.

"Obviously we'd like to get it done quicker," Kavanagh said.

But now, both the Parks Department and the Economic Development Corporation, which is assisting with the project, say there's no timeline — yet.

"With the exception of the new boardwalk islands that were completed for last summer, the design is being rethought from quite literally the ground up — with elevated, steel-reinforced concrete and multiple layers of protection, including approximately 6 miles of retaining walls and planted dunes," a Parks Department spokesman said in a statement.

"We anticipate breaking ground in early 2014 and as construction progresses we will be able to estimate completion dates for individual sections as well as the overall project."

The project requires extensive permitting as well as coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers sand replenishment project, the statement said.

But that sand project is expected to be finished by June 2014, according to an Army Corps spokesman, and would likely not impact continual boardwalk construction.