Walk north from Cambridge Avenue this month and the wood under your feet changes personality. From Cambridge to Suffolk, you're on new straight-plank boards, laid this spring in long parallel lines to replace the herringbone weave generations of residents walked without thinking about it. Cross Suffolk continuing north, though, and the boards revert to the same worn herringbone pattern that's been there since 1962, the stretch that's next in line to come out. By the time the trees along Newport Avenue lose their leaves this year, that straight-plank pattern is supposed to keep going, all the way north to Jackson Avenue and the Atlantic City line.
The city has explained this timeline as scheduling around the tourist season. That's true, but it's not the whole story, and it's not the reason the next stretch of construction is going to feel rushed in a way Phase 1 didn't. The real driver is a spending deadline attached to the state money paying for most of the job. Commissioner Lance Landgraf said it plainly when the closure was first announced: the city has to spend the grant funds by the end of October 2026. That single line, more than any ribbon-cutting speech, is what will determine how your daily walk looks between now and December.
The Deadline Behind the Timeline
Ventnor's $10.9 million reconstruction is funded mostly by a $7.1 million grant from the New Jersey Boardwalk Preservation Fund, a $100 million pool of federal American Rescue Plan money that Governor Phil Murphy's administration distributed to 18 shore towns in 2024. Ventnor's taxpayers are covering the remaining roughly $3.8 million through municipal financing. Fred Schiavone Construction holds the bulk of the contract, at close to $8.4 million, with Lumbermen Associates handling a smaller piece worth about $2.5 million.
Federal recovery dollars come with expiration clocks attached, and Ventnor's is landing right in the middle of Phase 2.
"We have to spend the state's grant money by the end of October 2026."
That's Landgraf again, and it explains why Phase 2, covering Suffolk Avenue north to Jackson Avenue, is aiming for a December 31, 2026 finish even though official start dates have moved around as "fall 2026" without ever landing on a fixed calendar day. The city isn't choosing a leisurely off-season pace this time. It's racing a clock that has nothing to do with Memorial Day and everything to do with a grant agreement signed in Trenton.
If Phase 1 is any guide, that pressure doesn't mean sloppy work. Crews hit weather delays over the winter, city engineer Ed Stinson told the Philadelphia Inquirer in February, with snow and ice slowing the decking crew's progress on the Cambridge-to-Suffolk stretch. They still finished ahead of the May 1 target, holding a ribbon-cutting on April 29 with Mayor Tim Kriebel, Commissioner Maria Mento, and Atlantic County Commissioner June Byrne on hand at Suffolk Avenue. Expect the same kind of urgency this fall, just compressed into a shorter window with less daylight and a harder deadline.
What Actually Changes Between Suffolk and Jackson
For residents who use the boardwalk the way most of Ventnor does, as a daily route rather than a tourist attraction, here's what the next several months look like on the ground:
- The stretch from Suffolk Avenue to Jackson Avenue will be fenced and closed to foot and bike traffic once work begins, the same way the Surrey-to-Cambridge section was closed starting November 3, 2025.
- The Ventnor Fishing Pier at Cambridge Avenue stays open. It's already part of the completed Phase 1 section, so pier access won't be affected by the new closure.
- The herringbone decking pattern disappears from this stretch too, replaced by the same straight-plank Cumaru hardwood used in Phase 1. Once Phase 2 wraps, virtually the entire middle-to-north run of Ventnor's boardwalk, from Cambridge up to the Atlantic City line, will match.
- New lighting goes in as more frequent, shorter poles, a design change specifically meant to cut down on light spilling into the second-story bedrooms of homes that face the boardwalk.
- Benches, including ones carrying memorial plaques that longtime residents will recognize, get reinstalled once the new decking is down rather than replaced with anything generic.
Here's how the two phases stack up side by side:
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Section | Cambridge Ave to Suffolk Ave | Suffolk Ave to Jackson Ave |
| Closure started | November 3, 2025 | Fall 2026 |
| Target finish | May 1, 2026 (beat by April 29) | December 31, 2026 |
| Lead contractor | Fred Schiavone Construction | Fred Schiavone Construction |
| Visible change | Herringbone replaced with straight-plank Cumaru | Same replacement, extended north |
Why the Old Pattern Mattered
It's worth pausing on what's actually disappearing here, because the herringbone deck isn't just a maintenance detail. Ventnor's boardwalk is a 1.7-mile extension of the Atlantic City Boardwalk, built not long after Ventnor incorporated in 1903, and it has only been rebuilt twice in its history: once after the 1944 hurricane, and once after the Ash Wednesday storm of March 1962, which residents who lived through it still describe as the night the ocean met the bay. Everything since 1962 has been patch and repair. This is the first ground-up reconstruction of Ventnor's boardwalk in more than sixty years.
For comparison, Margate, just south along the same barrier island, never rebuilt its boardwalk after the 1944 storm at all. Ventnor's decision to spend nearly $11 million rebuilding this stretch, rather than letting it follow Margate's path, says something about how the city sees this structure. Mayor Tim Kriebel put it directly at the April ribbon-cutting, calling the work not just repairing boards and piling but preserving something that's really an identity to Ventnor City. The straight-plank pattern replacing herringbone is a visible, permanent marker of that choice, and by the end of this year most of the boardwalk residents actually use day to day will carry it.
One caveat worth knowing if you walk the boardwalk south of Cambridge toward the Margate border: that section isn't part of either funded phase. City officials have said they'll seek additional grants to rebuild that remaining stretch in future years, but there's no funding or timeline attached yet. So even after Phase 2 wraps, a portion of Ventnor's boardwalk will still be running on the pre-2025 structure while the middle and north are brand new.
Planning Your Fall and Winter Around It
If you live on or near the boardwalk between Suffolk and Jackson, a few practical notes for the months ahead:
- Expect fencing to go up with limited notice, based on how the Phase 1 closure was announced last fall. The city's website and Facebook page have been the primary channels for updates, not always with much lead time.
- Specific detour routes for the Suffolk-to-Jackson closure haven't been published yet as of this writing. Watch the city's channels once fencing goes up rather than assuming last year's Phase 1 routing will repeat exactly.
- The pier stays accessible throughout, so anglers and regular pier walkers won't lose that access point even while the boardwalk itself is fenced nearby.
- If reduced light spill matters to you because your home faces the boardwalk, the new pole design is meant to address exactly that complaint, though the practical effect won't be visible until the new lighting is installed and running.
- Watch for a completion announcement closer to December. Given the October spending deadline, the city has real incentive to finish on schedule rather than let the project drift into 2027 the way some infrastructure work does.
None of this changes what makes Ventnor worth walking in the first place. But knowing the calendar is driven by a federal spending deadline, not just a preference for quiet off-season construction, changes how you read the next few months of fencing and detours. This isn't a project that can slip a season the way some public works jobs do. The money has a use-it-or-lose-it clock attached, and that clock runs out at the end of October.
If you're weighing a move to a boardwalk block, wondering what a home near the newly rebuilt stretch is actually worth, or just want a neighbor's read on how a project like this affects daily life here, Eric Millstein has been tracking Ventnor block by block for years. Let's connect. Get your home valuation and a straight answer about what's changing on your street.
