The City of Atlantic City has been awarded a $558,000 grant to complete the bike and pedestrian connection to Gardner Basin.
“Our goal has been to have the famed Atlantic City Board connect to Gardners Basin for the first time, with this grant this dream will become a reality” stated Mayor Don Guardian. “We thank the State for understanding how important this project is to the revitalization of our City.”
The grant will fund a path for bicyclists and pedestrians that will extend about 0.4 miles connecting Caspian Avenue to Gardners Basin. LED lighting, benches, landscaping, and other furnishings are included. This path will be protected by a bulkhead that will be built by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Development, Division of Coastal Engineering.
Mayor Guardian noted, “The NJDEP can fund coastal protection improvements like bulkheads but their funds cannot be used for amenities like pathways, so we had to look for another funding source.”
The grant is from the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program. The Transportation Alternatives Program is very popular and extremely competitive. This year, 133 applications were received totaling over $100 million. Only 37 projects were funded statewide. Rutala Associates, a local planning firm, applied for this grant on the City’s behalf.
The $50 million reconstruction of the Boardwalk is under construction and is expected to be completed in 2018.
“When completed, the Inlet Boardwalk Project will not only provide a great pedestrian and biking amenity, but will also incorporate a seawall that will protect valuable waterfront properties and promote their development. These properties could never be developed in the past with all the flooding that occurred in the past,” Guardian added.
City capital funds are being used to leverage the Seawall/Boardwalk project along with grants from the Army Corps of Engineers, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
The award of a second grant was also announced yesterday, a $300,000 NJDOT Bikeway Improvement Grant to construct bike lanes on Atlantic Avenue and Ohio Avenue. The State had many applications for this $1 million fund for bike safety improvements and three projects were funded – Atlantic City, Bordentown and Ocean County.
The Atlantic Avenue bike lanes will run from Jackson Avenue, the Ventnor boarder, to Albany Avenue. With the construction of the new Stockton University campus in the Chelsea area of the City, provide safe areas to bike is a priority.
The Ohio Avenue bike lanes will extend from North Riverside Drive and to Atlantic Avenue, connecting the Venice Park neighborhood to Downtown.
“We have many, many bicyclists in Atlantic City and it is important that we provide safe bike lanes”, noted Mayor Guardian.
Last year, the City completed a two-way bike track on Maryland Avenue and this year a bike loop is being in the Inlet.
Both grants provide full funding so that City funds will not be needed to build these projects.
