OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Phase two of re-decking the boardwalk in Ocean City has began. The wood from 15th street to Wicomico Street will be replaced, and the project is expected to be completed by early April of 2023.
Some people in Ocean City are happy the second phase has finally gotten off the ground.
"We're just excited to see that they're doing something like this," said Barbara Jones.
Jones feels this project will make the boardwalk safer to walk on.
"There's a lot of splinters and everything which isn't safe because people come barefoot off the beach, I mean that's not good," said Jones.
The project was slated to begin back in 2020, but Covid and volatility in the lumber market caused a delay.
"When Covid peaked, lumber did the same thing and required us to push the project back one full year to complete it number one, during the offseason and number two, when the price of lumber was going to drop," said Paul Mauser.
Mauser is the city engineer for Ocean City, and he said despite the delay, the project is happening just at the right time.
"The maximum expected timeframe of the boardwalk surface lumber is 10 years and that's what we got this time," said Mauser. "So it's time for our cyclical replacement of that lumber."
Even with the market volatility, the town was able to keep a close eye on the price of lumber and wait for it to fall into the projects overall budget of $2.2 million.
"We just kept a close watch and were able to get lumber for around $600 again per 1,000 board feet for the second phase of the project," said Mauser.
The town waited for lumber to fall into a range of $500-$600 per 1,000 board feet.
The $2.2 million budget for this project is divided into two categories: lumber and labor. The labor portion ended up costing $1.1 million, and the lumber portion ended up costing just under $1 million.
Some patient decisions kept this project within budget and have it back on track to be completed before the busy summer season of 2023.
