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Boulevard Park to Cornwall Boardwalk Options
DJGray
Posted: Friday, June 27, 2008 8:17:08 AM

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Location: Bellingham, WA
This idea is likely to become a hot potato soon. It doesn't have an official title yet, that I'm aware of, but similar to the Taylor Avenue Dock and Boardwalk, this is a proposed over the water boardwalk which is intended to connect Boulevard Park with the south end of Cornwall by crossing Bellingham Bay.

Given the popularity of the Taylor Ave structure, this would likely be just as popular. Undoubtedly it would be a beautiful walk across the bay, and a lot of fun to have in place, but the price tag strikes me as prohibitive, coming in at an estimated four to six million, likely from Greenways funds.

I'm open to persuasion on this, but my initial line of thought is that, 1) there is already a land trail that goes from one proposed endpoint to the other, and 2) there is a huge discrepancy between everything south of Bakerview compared to what is north of Bakerview, and the funding is better spent getting trails and parks for those people on the north end. Finally, I'm a little reticent to support such a proposal when the waterfront project is still very much an unknown. Plans for the waterfront are far from finalized, and it seems premature to plan such a boardwalk at this point in time. Indeed a boardwalk may end up being part of the waterfront plan itself.



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  • Stan Snapp
    Posted: Saturday, June 28, 2008 8:40:05 PM

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    Location: Bellingham
    Damon,
    Thoughtful as always. I won't take issue with you. I did attend the public presentation, or most of it, I had three meetings that night. The project is in three parts.
    1. Remove what's called the "cap" on the old over water walkway that runs south by Wood's Coffee. We were told the pilings are sound but the stringers, I would call them joists, are rotting. The proposal is to replace this cap with one a bit wider and more permanent.
    2. Remove a segment of broken concrete and poorly installed rip-rap in a mid=section of the current park lawn area. It needs to be filled to raise the level a bit as high tides currently flood this little area.
    3. Build a new over water walkway to the south point of the new development area.
    On the latter, you may recall that it took more than twenty years to get the current over water walkway from planning, to design to permitting to actual construction. Much of that was a hold up on permitting by Federal and State agencies. They told us we needed a "Bay Cleanup Plan" approved before they would allow us to build that short section of the South Bay Trail over the water.
    My point here is that we could easily run into delays on this new project. It was presented as an "early action item" for the Waterfront District but "early" remains to be seen.
    Lastly, while it's true that we already have a South Bay Trail, and a nice one too, the overwhelming popularity of the over water sections that are in place now suggest that an extension of that concept linking the current park with the new development will be very popular. I believe there is 4 million dollars of Greenways III funds targeted for this and those would not be taking anything from current plans for spending Greenway dollars in the north. It also is only two-thirds of the needed funding and I expect there will be grant monies sought for the balance of the needed funds.

    I hope this post will keep the conversation alive. I see my latest idea of starting a new bike lane thread sputtered. I guess we exhausted that one, at least for now.
    JBrown
    Posted: Saturday, June 28, 2008 9:23:24 PM
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    Location: Bellingham
    Thanks for all the intelligent info. I am sure this is going to be debated for a while.
    DJGray
    Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008 9:44:52 AM

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    Joined: 1/11/2008
    Posts: 256
    Location: Bellingham, WA
    Stan,

    Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you were able to attend that meeting, and share what you learned there. I'm trying to place (in my mind) the cap you're talking about. I might just make a run down there this week and take a look.



    Mark Twain wrote:

    A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on.

  • Mark Twain


  • Baron Miller wrote:

    Grace ruins the idea that you are fully in charge.

  • Baron Miller



  • Stan Snapp
    Posted: Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:52:08 PM

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    Joined: 1/9/2008
    Posts: 51
    Location: Bellingham
    Damon,
    The posts seem to have slowed. I've been gone for 8 days so didn't reply to your cap question. Did you have a chance to take a look? Working from my 67 year old memory bank, the pilings are connected by large beams bolted to the pile's near the top. The stringers, or joists, run lengthwise along the walk way with overlap at the piles. On top of that are the planks, the floor of the walkway and they lay cross ways to the joists. Joists and planks make up the cap. When you replace them it's pretty easy to widen the walkway and still use the same support pilings. Hope this helps.
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