A big excavator is being used to demolish the old ramp.
The monotonous buzzing of chainsaws provided a noisy soundtrack Wednesday on the Boardwalk at Moorlyn Terrace, close to the Ocean City Music Pier.
Adding to the din was a large excavator using its metal claw to demolish the wooden ramp at Moorlyn Terrace leading to the Boardwalk.
A $764,000 project got underway this week to replace the old ramp with a new one that will be handicap-accessible and will also create a much more attractive entryway to the Boardwalk and the Music Pier at Moorlyn Terrace.
“It will be a nicer entrance and much more accessible for disabled people and the public. It will also be a much more pleasing entrance and have better pedestrian flow,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said.
Savastano noted that the new ramp at Moorlyn Terrace will resemble the full-width ramp leading to the Boardwalk at Sixth Street.
The Moorlyn Terrace ramp is scheduled to be completed before Memorial Day, in time for the traditional start of the peak summer tourism season and the packed crowds on the Boardwalk.
For now, the site is a busy construction scene of chainsaws, heavy machinery and workers in hard hats. A chain-link fence on the Boardwalk blocks access to the construction site and includes the words “Danger … Construction Area … Do Not Enter.”
The construction site at Moorlyn Terrace is tucked behind a chain-link fence and a "Danger" sign.Although the cost of the ramp is $764,000, Community Development Block Grants are paying for $577,182 of the project, city spokesman Doug Bergen said.
The contractor for the ramp project is Atlantic City-based Weatherby Construction & Renovation Corp., the same company that is building Ocean City’s $6.1 million police substation overlooking the Boardwalk at Eighth Street. City officials have said the police substation is expected to be completed by this summer.
The new ramp at Moorlyn Terrace is just one of a series of improvements planned for the Boardwalk later this year.
Last fall, City Council approved a bond ordinance that included $3 million in funding to pay for the Boardwalk upgrades, primarily at the northern end between St. Charles Place and Fifth Street.
Improvements are planned for the Boardwalk’s decking, foundation, stairs, ramps and railings, according to a summary of the project. The Boardwalk will not be widened.
The $3 million in city funding will supplement two grants awarded to Ocean City for even more improvements to the famed wooden way.
One of those grants includes nearly $5 million from the state’s Boardwalk Preservation Fund. New Jersey created the $100 million Boardwalk Preservation Fund to help shore communities maintain and update what for many of them is their signature attraction during the summer tourism season.
In Ocean City, the nearly $5 million grant will be used for repairs to the Boardwalk’s deteriorated substructure near Third Street, better storm resiliency and new ADA-compliant ramps across the length of the Boardwalk, city officials said in 2024.
Moorlyn Terrace is where the Ocean City Music Pier, at right in background, is located.
