The Cliff Walk Repair Just Cleared Its Biggest Hurdle. The Detour Isn't Going Anywhere Yet.

A May 2025 photo published alongside this month's repair news shows the Cliff Walk on Narragansett Avenue blocked by a fence and barrier, with detour signs sending walkers inland along the street. The section behind that fence is still closed. On Oct. 13, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council voted unanimously, with little discussion, to approve Newport's revised repair plan for the collapsed section between Webster Street and Narragansett Avenue.

The vote matters. Still, the city's own timeline puts reopening at 2028 at the earliest. So for at least one more winter, the Cliff Walk works as two separate walks. A northern half runs from Easton's Beach to Forty Steps, a southern half runs from Webster Street to Bailey's Beach, and three streets connect them. The approval sets up the steps toward reopening, and every one of them still lies ahead.

The Vote Settled an Argument Over 25 Feet

The section has been closed since a significant slope failure on March 3, 2022, just south of Forty Steps. The same area took more damage in December 2022. By 2025 the job had grown. Along with fixing the failure itself, the city expanded the work to protect the entire stretch between Webster Street and Narragansett Avenue.

According to Rhode Island Current's reporting, republished by What's Up Newp, the $23 million project stalled on a 25-foot sliver of bluff in the middle of the repair site. The Cliff Walk is public along that stretch, but a private overlook belonging to the Ochre Point estate known as Southside sits beside it. CRMC staff decided the stonework proposed below the overlook was unnecessary because it would stabilize private property with no public benefit. The regulators asked for alternatives.

The project team came back with seven options and settled on one that every party accepted. The revised plan uses a few dozen steel bars to anchor the bedrock below the overlook. The technique is called rock doweling, and it means the project needs no special exception from the CRMC. The stone arch bridge next to the overlook will get foundational drilling at its base. CRMC engineer Richard Lucia recommended approval in a Sept. 16 memo. He wrote that the alternative "removes the prohibited activity — fill in tidal waters — and provides the best option to protect not only the bridge and the overlook, but the public accessible cliff walk itself."

One question is still open. The same report says nobody has settled who will pay to maintain the bridge going forward. A city spokesperson described it as likely to be a shared responsibility between the city and the property owners, much like other parts of the walkway.

Why the Barrier Stays Up Through Another Winter

The city needed the CRMC's approval before it could apply for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and that permit is still outstanding. Newport also has to hire engineers and construction firms through a competitive solicitation. Newport This Week reported before the vote that approval would let the city assemble funding and planning information into a Request for Proposals for that work.

City spokesperson Thomas Shevlin described the construction window this way to Rhode Island Current:

"I think we'd need one good working season to get this thing done."

A working season on an exposed bluff can't start until the Army Corps permit and the contracts are in place. That sequence explains why the projection says 2028 and why it says "as early as." If the walk reopens in 2028, the section will have been closed for about six years, counting from March 2022.

This Fall's Work Is at Forty Steps, Right at the Edge of the Gap

The big repair is still in the paperwork stage, but the north end of the gap won't be idle this season. At a Sept. 29 Cliff Walk Commission meeting, chair Peter Janaros reported that the city plans to redo the fencing near Forty Steps this fall, paid for with federal Wind Turbine Mitigation Funding. The City Council's Sept. 16 docket included a bid award for Cliff Walk replacement fencing. No schedule for that fencing work has been announced, so walkers starting at Narragansett Avenue in the coming weeks may find crews at work.

The same meeting covered two longer projects:

• Paving. According to Newport This Week, the city wants to pave the section from Memorial Boulevard to Forty Steps, and Janaros said that work is still in the engineering process.
• A master plan for the whole walk. Janaros said the city had received approval for a $150,000 grant for the plan, but it has to reissue the request for proposals after drawing only one consulting bid. The Commission's 2025 year-end summary describes a $200,000 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, received in December 2025, to fund the master plan and a baseline survey of conditions along the entire Cliff Walk.

The master plan looks at the walk as one connected path. Until the Webster-to-Narragansett section reopens, walkers use it as two pieces.

Two Walks, Three Streets

The Providence Journal's guide to the Cliff Walk lists ten formal access points. The closure divides them into two groups. The paved, easier surface runs from Memorial Boulevard to Ruggles Avenue. Past Ruggles, the path turns unpaved, rocky and uneven, with stretches that can require climbing over rocks or boulders.

This layout matters for anyone who wants an easy, paved walk. The northern half ends at a barrier. From Webster Street, the southern half gives you only a short paved stretch to Ruggles before the surface turns rough. Discover Newport also describes the Ledge Road end toward Bailey's Beach as rocky. In 2025 the city posted additional signs about the rugged terrain at the southern end, designed and placed with the Newport Fire Department.

To walk both halves in one outing, follow the posted street detour:

1. From Forty Steps, head west on Narragansett Avenue.
2. Turn south on Ochre Point Avenue, where the city added a sidewalk on the ocean side to make the detour easier to follow.
3. Turn east on Webster Street, which the city improved in 2025 so the walking area is easy to identify, and rejoin the path.

The south end has had a recent closure of its own. In April 2024, What's Up Newp reported that the city had closed a roughly quarter-mile stretch between Clarendon Court and Miramar after a sinkhole was found, with the concrete path behind Miramar settled about an inch and showing visible cracking. That section reopened after repairs in June 2024. The Commission's 2025 summary says the city is still working with the Miramar estate on an erosion issue there. It also notes a stormwater drainage problem affecting the walk that the city resolved together with the Beechwood estate.

The Off-Season Rules Change on November 1

Newport's winter parking schedule starts this Sunday. Discover Newport lists metered parking as free from November 1 through April 30, though it notes that hour limits may still apply. Its summer rates for Memorial Boulevard and Narragansett Avenue are listed separately. Those two streets serve the busiest entrances, Easton's Beach and Forty Steps, so check the posted signs for time limits even when the meter is free.

Restrooms are the other seasonal issue. The same visitor guide describes the public restrooms at Forty Steps as seasonal and open during daylight hours, and the Easton's Beach restrooms as seasonal too. Forty Steps currently has two restrooms. The City Council approved two more on March 12, 2025, as part of the 2025/2026 Capital Improvement Program. The city is also working with Salve Regina University and the Preservation Society of Newport County on options south of Forty Steps.

The Commission's report also credits much of the walk's routine upkeep to volunteers. They handle painting, litter pickup and vegetation clearing, and they report problems they spot on the path. The report names Chris Jones, Pete Rice, Richard Morgera, Michael Fitch, Warren Gray and Dennis Bristow. Until crews can begin on the Webster-to-Narragansett section, upkeep on both open halves depends on that group, alongside city staff.

Questions like how long a public project will take, or what the fence along a stretch of shoreline actually allows, come up often in Newport. I keep track of them for clients and neighbors. If you want to talk through what the Cliff Walk timeline means for your corner of the city, Fran Bidell is glad to help. Let's Connect.