The stairs at Glass Beach and Girl Scout Beach are in rough condition, but the Public Works Department (PWD) is working on a project to remedy the issues with a long-term solution.

Glass Beach is currently closed while work is completed to put all new concrete stairs in which will remove the issues with corrosion that the previous stairs have had.

"We are anticipating that it will take five to six weeks of construction," said Cmdr. Jeff Richer, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's (NSGB) Public Works Officer. "That will be the only beach closed during that period and we will be keeping a close eye on the contractor to be sure that we're staying on schedule so that we'll be able to open that beach up."

Once Glass Beach construction is complete, PWD will close Girl Scout Beach so that the same repairs can be made to the stairs located there and the construction should follow the same timeline for completion as the Glass Beach repairs.

While PWD does have plans to close Girl Scout in five to six weeks, they are currently doing some repairs out at Phillips Dive Park and expect to be able to open it up to the general public.

"It won't be to its former glory, there won't be the full pier and turn around area, but we will have an entry point with stairs," said Richer. "The Seabees have been out there working hard the past two weeks."

Phillips Dive Park will not be open until Girl Scout Beach closes but, once open, the intent is to leave it open for the foreseeable future. The current project will provide basic entry capabilities for one to two people at a time with a longer one to two year plan in the works to bring the dive park closer to its former glory that existed pre-Hurricane Sandy, which badly damaged Phillips Dive Park in 2012. Since Sandy, there have been several contracts to attempt to repair the dive park, a difficult task due to the amount of landscape that was damaged during the storm.

The Slot is also having some minor work completed, but will remain open for diving.

While the stairs that line the cliffs of NSGB to some of its residents' favorite beach destinations are one large project PWD is currently undertaking, they're also working to repair some of the potholes along Sherman Avenue. In the near future, PWD will be repairing a few more spots near the Base Communication Office with patches.

Short-term plans are also in the works to completely replace the road between the Downtown Lyceum and McDonald's and repair the water lines below the road, which will eliminate some of NSGB's most notorious "speed bumps" along that area as well as fix the water leak issues. The contract for the downtown area is still in the design phase and work will not begin until next fiscal year due to the large scale of the project.

A contract has also been awarded to replace some of the roads deteriorating in the neighborhoods of Paola Point, Radio Point, Deer Point and Marine Site. Richer expects to see that construction project begin late this summer.


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