Newport’s Cliff Walk is in a battle against the sea – needing millions of dollars for crucial repairs – and a new conflict in getting the federal government to disburse that money has emerged.
Now city and tourism officials have written off any hope that the historic attraction will be fixed in time for the height of tourism season – the fourth summer in a row that a portion of the 3½-mile trail will be closed.
The city says it had been ready to seek bids for the reconstruction work once it received more than $16 million in federal funding that was secured in April 2024. But the money never arrived, and efforts to pause federal payouts by President Donald Trump’s administration have put the repairs in limbo.
“Announcing [the funding] and receiving it are two different things,” Thomas Shevlin, the city communications director, said in early February. “We still don’t know how the federal fund freeze will impact our project.”
The wait for repairs has already stretched on for years.
A section of the Cliff Walk between Narragansett Avenue – at the famous 40 steps to the waterline – and Webster Street has been closed since a washout in March 2022 destroyed a 25-foot section of seawall that held up a portion of the walk. Since then, visitors have instead detoured through the nearby neighborhood before reconnecting with the walk farther south.
The scenic walkway overlooks crashing waves in Easton Bay on one side and snakes past Gilded Age mansions on the other. One study estimated that more than 1 million people visit the pathway each year, but it’s unclear how the partial closure has affected attendance.
A 2018 Salve Regina University study concluded that people visiting the trail contribute more than $252 million to the Ocean State economy every year. The study also found that Cliff Walk visitors spend an average of $126.45 in the city, even though the walk itself is free.
The Cliff Walk has been damaged by the sea numerous times over the decades – including in 2012 when deterioration caused by Superstorm Sandy forced the city to close more than half of the walkway for more than a year.
It’s that constant risk of erosion – as well as the walk’s precarious spot high above the rocky shoreline – that makes permanent repairs complicated and a financial burden that city officials have said they’re unable to bear alone.
Meanwhile, some questioned the wisdom of spending money to restore the damaged section of the walk in the face of threats from climate change and rising sea levels.
Still, Newport has forged ahead. Within a month of the collapse in 2022, the city hired Providence-based GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc. construction management group to carry out a study to assess the Cliff Walk’s damage and propose potential repairs.
A financial solution appeared to be at hand in April 2024. That’s when the Rhode Island congressional delegation announced that the state had secured a joint $5 million federal earmark to help cover the repair design and engineering expenses.
The delegation said another $11 million would be funded by a grant from the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation program. Those funds would be used to improve and brace the seawall infrastructure against the effects of climate change and coastal erosion.
Repairs appeared more certain when statewide voters approved a $53 million green economy bond issue that included a $3 million allocation for the Cliff Walk, and city voters authorized an additional bond issue that allotted $3.75 million for the project.
But on Jan. 27, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget announced the federal spending freeze, stopping trillions of dollars in funding. His office took aim at stopping federal money from being wasted on “advancing Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”
That action touched off a fusillade of federal lawsuits from Trump’s opposition, followed by court orders seemingly overturning any freeze. But still, in many cases, officials say money has yet to be dispersed.
The city of Newport continues to monitor developments.
Shevlin says the city initially expected to have the money and a winning project bidder within six to nine months of receiving the grants. That never happened.
“This seawall repair was never a simple process to begin with, and now it’s gotten a lot more complicated,” he said.
