Sandwich Boardwalk design gets OK from historic committee

SANDWICH — The Historic District Committee unanimously approved a final design for the proposed Sandwich Boardwalk project Wednesday after more than two years of often contentious debate.

The project to demolish and build a new boardwalk now moves on to a lengthy design and permitting process, which town officialsestimate could take six to nine months. Ideally, officials hope construction will begin in the winter of 2022 and finish in the summer of 2023.

Committee member Peter Williams said it was a good result and he was pleased with the design. Ross Vander Pyl, with a look of exasperation, said it was “a sad day,” and that this design, after all the time put into it, was not good enough. He said that the Sandwich Boardwalk was cherished, and this new design would just not be the same. 

Michael Johnston agreed that it was a sad day, but added a new design is needed to speak to the future while honoring the past. Williams said the design for the new boardwalk needed to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and it did a good job of doing that. 

Matt Spencer said it was another stepping stone in history, and Committee Chair Mary Foley echoed this, calling it “evolutionary.”

The committee unanimously approved the recommendation of the Sandwich Select Board, with a few adjustments. The Select Board recommended a 10.5-foot height for the boardwalk, with the caveat that if regulatory boards said this was too low, they could go up to 12 feet. The historical committee removed the 12-foot height option from of the motion prior to the vote. 

The Select Board recommendation also included a choice of railing between completely wood and wood with a timber mesh. The historical committee’s motion only included the wood with timber mesh option, though the railings on the arch would be completely wood.

The vote was preceded by a presentation from the town, discussion by the historic district committee and public comment

Assistant Town Engineer Sam Jensen talked about the need for the new boardwalk and that the town needed to move forward as soon as possible. Consultant Alan Pepin spoke about some of the elements of the final proposed design, as well as a Woods Hole study that predicted a 2.4-foot sea level rise in Sandwich by 2050. 

Some of the design elements in the final proposal were due to comments from the public, officials said. For example, the recommendation now includes an elevation of 10.5 feet, though prior to this the Select Board discussed a 12-foot height. A 12-foot height is more resilient to storms and has a longer life expectancy than 10.5 feet, Pepin said.

However, a majority of the public comments prioritized the lower height over coastal resiliency, said Assistant Town Manager Heather Harper. Many members of the public also preferred the wood with timber mesh as opposed to the other railing choices, and a higher arch over Mill Creek. 

During the public comment period of the meeting, Ray Howard, chair of Friends of Sandwich Boardwalk, told the historic committee that this boardwalk is what they would be remembered for. He said the Friends wanted the timber mesh, a larger gap between the strings of the mesh so that people could see out, a slightly higher arch and a shallower slope. He said that a lower elevation is better, and that he would prefer if the Boardwalk go even lower than the proposed 10.5 feet. 

Howard said the design was almost there, but not quite, and that this wasn’t the time to be impatient. He asked that the committee pursue more meetings. His speech was the only one in the meeting which received applause. 

Howard asked that the committee listen to Peter Barlow, who he said was a senior bridge engineer. Barlow said there were serious flaws in the design. 

What's next for the project?

The next steps for the project include smoothing out some of the technical documentation and completing a feasibility design, expected in a few weeks, Harper said. After that, there is a permitting process, including from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, among others. 

Town officials hope the permitting process will take six to nine months. If the 10.5-foot elevation is rejected, this will set the process back. 

Harper said the town’s ideal goal would be to begin construction in the winter 2022, and be able to finish the construction and open the new boardwalk up in the summer 2023.