Atlantic Beach cycles toward a bike lane

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The Village of Atlantic Beach is gearing up to make its boardwalk a better venue this summer. “We try to get most of the work on the boardwalk done in the winter,” said Deputy Mayor Edward Sullivan. “Whenever it isn’t super cold, raining or snowing.”

The bicycle lane will be moved to the center of the boardwalk. That mirror’s the lane installed on Long Beach’s boardwalk after the city’s Hurricane Sandy rebuild in 2013. Mayor George Pappas said the project has begun with the roughly quarter-mile long stretch from the plaza beach entrance to the Clearwater Beach Club.

Boards will run parallel with the boardwalk, down it’s center, marking the lane while other boards will run at an intersecting angle. Most of the boardwalk’s center is marked, and Pappas said the work will take another two years to complete, but the boardwalk will be smoother and stronger. The village has spent nearly $100,000 on the project, to date.

Sullivan said the bike lane will take up about a third of the boardwalk, compared to the half it previously occupied. “We noticed that when older people walk on the boardwalk many like to hold the railing,” he said. “Now they don’t have the benches in their way on the south side, the elderly or handicap can walk in both directions on the walking path on the north side, where the railing is only interrupted by the ramps.”

A safer boardwalk will be built, Sullivan added. “When we have the center lane the boards that come off the center and go across the north and south sides will not have any seams,” he said. “You know, over time the boards can start to warp and people trip, so we try to get as much done in the winter as we can.”