Boat ramps set to reopen at Currie Park next month

City is replacing the ramps, adding staging docks, finger piers.

WEST PALM BEACH — The city has “beach” in its name but has no beach.

It’s a boater’s paradise, on the Intracoastal with easy access to the Atlantic, but has no open ramps to slide your boat into the water.

But here’s the good news: One of those problems is about to be fixed.

West Palm’s director of Parks and Recreation, Leah Rockwell, says the city’s once-busy Currie Park boat ramps, closed for repairs since July 23, are on schedule to reopen in mid-September.

Thanks to a $428,000 grant from the Florida Inland Navigational District and a matching investment by the city, Currie Park is replacing its boat ramps and adding staging docks and finger piers.

“We’re trying to create a better experience for boaters,” Rockwell said Tuesday.

In addition to the ramps and docks, the city is dredging the basin and channel toward the Intracoastal, removing “a small sandbar that’s a little too shallow for boaters,” she said.

The city has worked on the facility bit by bit over the years, replacing the ramps in the 1990s and adding safety lighting in the mid-2000s.

The ramps have a security guard to dissuade homeless park visitors from being overly helpful to boaters who don’t need help, she added.

The new project should make access easier and quicker, particularly since the staging areas will provide room for boaters to load or unload without tying up the ramps, she said. That’s a big issue, especially on weekends,

since Currie offers the only public ramps within city limits and lines can be long.

The ramps closed partially on July 13, with full closure on July 23. In the meantime, other alternatives remain available:

■ Phil Foster Park, 900 lic Boat Ramp, 2520 Lake E. Blue Heron Blvd., RivWorth Road, Lake Worth. iera Beach. For more information

■ Jim Berry Light Harbor about boat ramp locations, Park, 1800 Broadway Ave., visit https://public.myfwc. Riviera Beach. com/LE/boatramp/public/.

■ Lake Park Marina, 205 Or call the City of West Palm Lake Shore Drive, Lake Park. Beach for Currie Park Boat

■ Bryant Park South, Ramp information, at 561100 S. Golfview Road, Lake 822-1200.

Worth.

■ John Prince Park Pub-

In addition to replacing the ramps and docks, the city is dredging the basin and channel toward the Intracoastal, removing “a small sandbar that’s a little too shallow for boaters,” a city official said.

PHOTOS BY BILL INGRAM / THE PALM BEACH POST Currie Park offers the only public ramps within city limits and lines can be long.

BILL INGRAM / THE PALM BEACH POST The city has worked on the facility bit by bit over the years, replacing the ramps in the 1990s and adding safety lighting in the mid-2000s. The ramps have a security guard to dissuade homeless park visitors from being overly helpful.