Broad Street closed to traffic until September. Plan alternate routes. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
They emerged from the ground Monday morning, a sure sign of the season in which chilling out takes precedence over hustle and bustle, where a sip of wine under the stars prevails over shortcuts for SUV’s. Love ’em or hate ’em, the Broadwalk bollards are back.
Bollards in bloom.(Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
The deployment of the retractable metal bollards (covered with red plastic sleeves) marks the first day of Broadwalk, the seasonal conversion of the busiest stretch of Broad Street into a pedestrian plaza. The stretch between White and Front Streets will be closed to traffic until Sept. 30.
Broadwalk was created in 2020 to provide room for outdoor dining to help downtown businesses recover from the wallop of the COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in the United States earlier in the year.
The retractable metal bollards were installed as part of a streetscape project in 2022. They were fitted with red plastic sleeves a year later.
In February, the Borough Council voted unanimously to make Broadwalk a permanent, etched-in-ordinance seasonal road closure.
Opinions on the closure remain mixed, with some business owners and residents praising the program and others blaming it for business downturns and traffic snarls.
Several new features are planned for this year, including a green market every Thursday evening starting in June.
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