County officials are replacing and enlarging the over-the-dune walkway at Beach Access No. 3, the first phase in an ongoing overhaul of the popular park.
Funding for the $200,000 project mostly comes from a $120,000 Coastal Management Program grant from the Texas General Land Office.
“The cost would be $200,000, maybe a little bit more since you know the cost of construction materials has skyrocketed,” said County Commissioner Sofia Benavides, who represents Precinct 1 which covers Cameron County’s coastal area.
The GLO grant is a 60/40 match, meaning the county will fund $80,000 of the cost of the new walkway, Benavides said.
“The walkway’s going to be an ADA walkway, and we’re going to have also some ADA compliant parking for the dune walkover as well,” said Joe Vega, county parks director. “We just executed the agreements with the GLO on this grant, and we’re hoping that in the next month or so to start working on the procurement for the construction.”
The new over-the-dune walkway will be far larger than the current span and will measure 268 feet long and eight feet wide.
And that walkway is just the first phase of what Benavides described as a major overhaul of the coastal beach access park.
“We hope to include redoing the parking lot. We hope to be able to add a pavilion, so that people are able to get in there, and hopefully the pavilion will have running water for showers or rinse stations as you come off the beach,” Benavides said.
The improvements at Beach Access No. 3 are just the latest investment into the county’s coastal parks, Benavides noted.
“We’ve committed a lot of money through the south end with the amphitheater. We took the pavilions and moved them landwards 200 feet. We of course re-did the dunes, and we have an events center now,” she said, speaking of Isla Blanca Park. “We put in approximately close to $30 million there.”
Benavides also noted the new South Texas Eco-Tourism Center in Laguna Vista, which cost around $12 million and is located in County Commissioner David Garza’s Precinct 3.
Benavides said the improvements for the coastal parks doesn’t mean county officials are ignoring inland parks, only that available grant monies are specifically earmarked for use in areas adjacent to the gulf or Laguna Madre.
“I know we have a lot of community parks, but the coastal money has to be re-invested in coastal parks,” she said.
