BAY CURRENTS EXCLUSIVE

(Team reporting) --

The legendary boardwalk of Brighton Beach and Coney Island will be no more.

Bay Currents has learned that the city Parks Department awarded a $13.7 million contract to a San Diego company to replace all of the Brighton boardwalk and most of the Coney Island boardwalk with, to the shock of many residents and boardwalk visitors, concrete.

Funds to renovate the boardwalk were allocated this past spring as part of the federal stimulus package.

Affected areas will include:

West 31st to 37th Streets (using concrete decking)

West 15th to Stillwell (using wood decking over concrete slabs)

Ocean Parkway to Brighton 2nd Street (using concrete decking)

We will seek to maintain access to the boardwalk at all times by only doing one half at a time.

Abramson did not give any fuirther information, adding only that Chief Engineer John Natoli and Therese Braddick, deputy commissioner for capital projects, were "not available for interviews."

The San Diego company, T.B. Penick & Sons, said in a Nov. 12 statement, "Work will begin immediately to demolish portions of the existing damaged wooden boardwalk; precast concrete slab units will be installed as the foundation of the 2.7-mile (4.0 km) boardwalk to strengthen and stabilize it. The boardwalk's existing hardwood timbers will be replaced by a combination of colored and textured pre-cast concrete slabs, custom exposed aggregate and sustainably harvested hardwood wood decking. The project duration is two years, however, [subcontractor] Triton anticipates completing early in approximately fall 2010, dependent upon the weather and summer tourism.

The project will create “a secondary concrete jungle,” said Michael Greco of Bath Beach,, 48, an electrician and construction designer.

In addresses to the Community Board and in interviews with Bay Currents, Greco described the plan as a “boardwalk blunder” that will “not only take away from the legacy of an American icon, but also has several flaws in design.”

For one thing, textured concrete, “although appealing to the eye,” is too rough and hazardous for bicycles, baby carriages, or jogging, he said.

The Parks Department’s plan to place traditional wooden planks over concrete on the portion of the boardwalk at the amusement area of Coney is also flawed, Greco said. Moisture and garbage would soon accumulate amid the spaces between the planks, rotting the wood, and the type of screws the Department plans to use -- “tapcon” screws with alternating threads -- will quickly become displaced and start sticking out of the planks, causing more of the injuries that have already occurred in the deteriorating existing boardwalk, for which the city has been hit with millions of dollars in lawsuits.

.Greco suggested to Parks Department officials an alternate plan, including a 12-foot-wide exercise pat made out of shock-absorbing material, installed on each of the two sides of the boardwalk, replacing the rest of the boardwalk either with wood or simulated wood planks He said the officials looked over his plans but told him the project was already a done deal. He added that the officials suspected he was merely trying to seek a contract, but said that was not the case. "I have no ulterior motive at all," Greco said. "I'm just concerned about Coney Island and the boardwalk."

(Copyright 2009, Bay Currents Media Group)