Storm-damaged Cliff Walk expected to stay open

Newport dodged the worst of Hurricane Sandy last fall, but the damage it did sustain threatened a key piece of the city’s expansive tourism infrastructure: the Cliff Walk.
Wind-driven waves riding a large storm surge smashed pieces of the mansion and seaside walkway, undermining the earth and concrete abutments it rests on.
After the storm, city and state officials wanted to fix the Cliff Walk as quickly as possible, preferably before the end of the summer tourist season.
It’s turned out to be more complicated than they imagined.
Initial plans to bring in heavy machinery via ocean jetties and protect sections of the Cliff Walk seawall with piles of giant “armor stones” were scuttled due to concerns they would destroy the famous surf break at Ruggles Avenue.
In addition to its ocean and mansion views, the most popular section of the Cliff Walk is also one of the most famous surf spots on the East Coast.
So the R.I. Department of Transportation, which is using federal Sandy relief money to fix the Cliff Walk, has gone back to the drawing board again with plans that won’t be finished before or during summer.
Despite the inconvenience, some Newport tourism-industry leaders are not overly concerned the construction project will take a large bite out of the coming season.
In fact, although the delay means parts of the Cliff Walk will likely remain closed all summer, they say it might actually have the benefit of pushing much of the work into the fall or beyond the height of the tourist season.
“People have called and asked, ‘Will this hurt tourism?’ I don’t think so,” said Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport. “Obviously the Cliff Walk is an amazingly popular part of traveler experience – a ‘must do’ when you come here. But the Cliff Walk will get restored and hopefully be better than ever. Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Right now, about one-third of the Cliff Walk is open, and fortunately it happens to be the most popular and heavily traveled part, the northern portion between Memorial Boulevard and The Breakers mansion.
Delaying the work until fall may leave that popular northern section of the Cliff Walk open during the summer season with minimal repair-related obstacles.
The roughly two-mile section of the walkway south from The Breakers, on the other hand, is closed and will likely remain closed for most of the season, according to state officials.
Smith said although neither option was ideal, keeping the most popular and visible part of the Cliff Walk open might be less disruptive from a tourism perspective.
Avoiding a lengthy and potentially bitter dispute with the local environmental and surfing communities was also valuable.
“No one wanted to pit construction against a user group,” Smith said. “I think the surfers had a legitimate concern, so rethinking how they will fix it long term, hopefully it’s a chance to not just repair it but make it better.”
Smith said the Cliff Walk work was an opportunity to encourage visitors to walk at other scenic sites, including the Bay Walk at Fort Adams State Park.
Fixing Sandy damage quickly has been a priority throughout the Newport area.
At Ocean Avenue, the winding roadway along Newport’s rarified south shore, a seawall has already been fixed and damaged parts of the street repaved.
In Middletown, repairs to Sachuest Point Road, which runs behind Second Beach to the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge, started in March and are expected to be finished by next month.
The road was washed out by Sandy flooding and reconstruction work is being done by Narragansett Improvement Co. of Providence under an $864,000 contract.
Perched between the Atlantic Ocean and some of the most expensive real estate in the country, the Cliff Walk is not easily reached by cement mixers and bulldozers. When the repair plans started coming together, some mansion owners accepted having work crews cross or set up shop on their lawns. Others didn’t.
The section of Cliff Walk that rounds the promontory where the Breakers and Ruggles surf spots are located has been particularly challenging.
When the R.I. Department of Transportation submitted proposals for Cliff Walk repairs from contractors this winter, Cardi Corp. of Warwick, the low bidder, proposed building two temporary stone jetties in the water off Ruggles Avenue to get heavy equipment to the Cliff Walk. The Cardi Corp. bid was for $6.8 million.
The concern was that those jetties, and the armor stone designed to reinforce the seawall, would disrupt the water currents in a way that would prevent waves from breaking naturally.
After hearing these concerns, DOT this month decided to seek new proposals for fixing the Cliff Walk and ask that they not include jetties or waterside armor stone.
Department of Transportation Deputy Chief Engineer Robert Smith said while it will delay the completion of Cliff Walk repairs, the revised project could turn out to be less expensive because it will involve less armor stone.
He said to get crews to the seawall without the jetties, the state is going back to abutters to try to get permission for more access.
The city of Newport is also fixing a wall adjacent to The Breakers at the highly trafficked area between Ruggles Avenue and Shepard Avenue.
A much smaller project at $311,000, The Breakers seawall repairs were planned before, and then interrupted by, Sandy. They now include patching two roughly 40-foot holes in the wall, said Newport City Engineer Eric Earls.
Earls said the city project is being coordinated with the larger state project and will almost certainly not begin until after the summer tourist season. •

No posts to display