News

    The boardwalk loop at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which the city shut down in February after being warned it was near collapse, will remain closed until the end of the year.
    Boca Raton officials are working to bid out the project; they expect construction will take 120 days.
    The city had asked the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which pays the nature center’s operating and maintenance costs, for money to replace the boardwalk the day after it was closed. The district decided to have consultant Miller Legg review the city’s proposal and take a leading role.
    But on May 11, city Municipal Services Director Dan Grippo told the district he thought his department could handle the project as quickly as Miller Legg could.
    “Again, we are all after the same goal — a successful cost effective project resulting in a safe and structurally sound boardwalk at Gumbo Limbo,” he said in an email.
    The ¼-mile boardwalk was closed Feb. 23 after engineers reported that joists under the planks had “no positive means of support” and “could fail without warning.”
— Steve Plunkett