By Michèle De Meglio
Coney Island’s famed Riegelman Boardwalk is being readied for the summer season. Community Board 13 Chair Marion Cleaver said she recently took a stroll on the boardwalk and was glad to see that some faulty planks were replaced. “I walked on the boardwalk on Easter Sunday,” Cleaver said at last week’s Community Board meeting. “There were actually some new boards on the boardwalk which got me excited.” But it wasn’t all good news. “Then I put my glasses on and noticed that there were some holes too,” she said to laughs from Community Board 13 members. “So there’s still more work to be done,” Cleaver added. The city Parks Department is currently repairing broken boardwalk planks in preparation for summer’s beachgoers. The department is also preparing for a large-scale replacement of boardwalk planks from West 12th to West 15th Streets, which is set to begin this fall. But in a twist, the planks installed will be synthetic instead of the wood planks currently lining the boardwalk. The Parks Department says the synthetic planks will be more cost-effective than wood planks because they require little to no maintenance. During the 2009 summer season, Parks Department officials will determine if the planks were successful at handling pedestrian traffic. If so, the synthetic planks could be installed on the remainder of the boardwalk. The cost of a full synthetic plank replacement is undetermined. However, a full replacement of solid wood planks would cost about $200 million. Last month, Marty Maher, chief of staff for the Parks Department’s Brooklyn division, told Coney Island residents that the city would likely receive a discount if a full plank replacement is ultimately done. “We get bigger bang for the buck because we get cheaper prices,” he said.
