The City of New Orleans released its final draft for Lincoln Beach’s master plan, which involves four phases.
The city is no longer planning a quick open this year. Instead it plans to open the beach when phase one is complete, which is estimated for late 2026 or early 2027. The city said once that happens, the beach won’t need to be closed for construction on the other phases.
“ I can tell you that I've been given a very clear charge, by both Mayor Cantrell and my supervisor Joe Threat, get the beach open. And that is what we are here to do,” New Orleans’ Deputy Chief Resilience Officer Greg Nichols said Tuesday at a public milestone meeting for the project.
The first phase includes the most of the infrastructure needed to make the beach safe and functional, such as a bridge to the beach, half of the parking lot and restrooms and lockers.
“With some of the delays, it made more sense at this point just to combine any sort of quick open with a phase one and do it all at once, since the beach would need to be closed down again for additional [construction], and so the timelines kind of caught up to one another,.” Nichols added.
He said the city was waiting on federal and state approvals for the specific type of contracting the project will use, called construction management at risk (CMAR).
“We have state funding. We have three different sources of federal funding, and so we needed to get their approval before we went out to bid on it,” he said.
But now the city said it can move forward with hiring that contractor who will build out the design. The city put out a Request for Quotation last Friday and has started soliciting bids.
The city also said it has enough funding to complete phase one, about $26 million. The next three phases will require additional money.
“ It's important to really emphasize that what we're talking about with you today – and specifically phase one of the beach – is doable with the money that the city has accumulated over the past several years of seeking funding to support this effort,” said Gabriel Ramos, an associate planner with Sasaki Associates, the firm hired to design the new beach. “So what we're talking with you all about today is very real and is going to happen, period.”
But advocates for the beach said they want more assurance that the city will be able to afford all the elements in phase one. The delays, changes to the plan and lack of transparency have left them frustrated and skeptical of the city’s ability to accomplish the plan.
“I don’t know how they’re going to complete it. We just wanted a place for the kids to come be safe, have a proper place, sanitation and food,” said Reggie Ford, one of three advocates who took care of the beach and pushed for the city to revitalize it. “But we'll see what happens. I want this, but I don't see the numbers on this, how it's gonna work.”
Residents can submit comments about the draft online until June 2.