Biloxi Boardwalk construction begins

If you’ve driven past the beach in West Biloxi then you might have noticed the temporary fencing put up along West Beach in the area of Sharkheads and Restaurant Row. This area is now a construction zone as the city begins work on a new boardwalk.

The temporary fences along the beach in West Biloxi symbolize a plan which is officially becoming a reality for Biloxi Mayor FoFo Gilich as construction on the West Biloxi Festival Boardwalk is now underway. Cecilia Dobbs-Walton with Biloxi Public Affairs said, “Mayor Gilich has had a vision to make the waterfront more accessible and more useable to the public and to the visitors. So this is just one part of that vision coming along. He sees a vision of having a boardwalk all the way from Back Bay all the way to the front of the beach.”

The new boardwalk is a city-county project using more than one million dollars in Tidelands Funds. It will run along the beachfront, connecting the Coast Transit Authority comfort station near Rodenberg Avenue to Veteran’s Avenue.

When construction on the boardwalk is finished it will be more than three thousand feet long and it will be ten feet wide. “Mayor Gilich feels that the waterfront is one of Biloxi’s best assets so this would just allow visitors and locals to use the waterfront a lot easier. It will be along the back of a lot of restaurants along the beach,” said Walton.

The first phase of construction will take about 175 days. “They are doing the pilings now. The decking is supposed to be delivered this week. They have put fencing along the beach and areas that they need to for the public not to walk back and forth while they are doing this work,” said Walton.

The area will still be open to beachgoers during construction.