A Nassau County community known for its miles of Atlantic Beach oceanfront has a new problem with some old boardwalks that connect South Fletcher Avenue to the sandy shoreline.
Our Florida Times-Union news partner reports Fernandina Beach officials have shut down 12 beach crossover boardwalks along almost 5 miles of beachfront immediately, based on structural deficiencies noted in an independent review of the wooden structures done by Gillette & Associates.
Three of them — Manatee Access No. 35S at Suwanee Avenue, Osceola Access No. 38 and Pasco Access No. 40 a few blocks south of that — will be dismantled by city crews, then replaced, city spokeswoman Mary Hamburg said.
“The ones most troubling are going to be torn down. So many people say they walk them every day, but these are qualified engineers making the call,” Hamburg said. ”... Better safe than sorry, if that’s what the engineers are saying.”
City officials learned in December that some of the wood structures that run over the sand dunes between South Fletcher Avenue and beachfront parking lots and the oceanfront were in poor shape, Hamburg said. The city paid $4,800 to Gillette & Associates, a local engineering firm, to assess the safety and structural integrity of the wooden boardwalks.
A longer version of this story is available on Jacksonville.com.
