NCC to open part of Westboro Beach
A section of Westboro Beach will open to the public this summer for the second year in a row.
The National Capital Commission announced Tuesday that an “unsupervised section” of Westboro Beach would be open to the public this summer as work on the property continued.
“Swimming is at your own risk. No lifeguards will be on duty and no water testing will be done this summer,” the social media post read.
The NCC said it would again provide garbage bins and portable washrooms in the area for the public this summer. The parking lot will not be open for public use due to construction along the Kichi Zībī Mīkan parkway, but limited public parking is to be available at the intersection of Lanark and Kirchoffer avenues.
A portion of the beach similarly opened in 2023 after it was closed entirely in spring 2022, when the NCC began a $21-million project to rehabilitate the beach’s pavilion, build new bathrooms and a larger parking lot and do additional landscaping.
That work was to have been finished by September 2023, but the project is behind schedule.
The NCC was asked for an updated timeline for the project, but did not immediately respond on Tuesday.
In 2023, NCC chief executive officer Tobi Nussbaum said work on the Westboro Beach project had been hindered by supply-chain breakdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we’re still confident that much of the building will be constructed this year, there will be important landscaping and other related parts of the project that will only be done next year,” Nussbaum said.