The stretch of the Cliff Walk between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street has been closed for more than four years. In the middle of the repair site is a 25-foot sliver of bluff below a private overlook that comes with an adjacent Ochre Point estate. At a July hearing, how to treat that sliver became the open question in front of coastal regulators.
On Tuesday, October 13, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council voted unanimously to approve Newport's revised repair plan, with little discussion, Rhode Island Current reported. The engineering question is settled. Permits, procurement and one construction season are what remain, and that schedule points to 2028 at the earliest. Expect to walk around the gap this winter and very likely next winter too.
What the Steel Bars Settled
The closure goes back to three failures in the same area, in March 2022, December 2022 and December 2023, as Newport This Week laid out in early 2024. The City's official Cliff Walk page places the original failure just south of Forty Steps. It describes the closed section as running between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street. Over time, the repair grew from fixing the slope failure to protecting that entire stretch.
The first plan stalled in July. According to Rhode Island Current, CRMC staff found that the stone work proposed beneath the private overlook was unnecessary and offered no public benefit. Representatives for the estate argued that the riprap was needed to stabilize the public path on both sides of it, along with an adjacent stone arch bridge. Regulators sent the city's engineers and the property owners away to look at alternatives. The team came back with seven options and chose one that satisfied all parties.
The chosen option is rock doweling. A few dozen steel bars anchor the bedrock under the overlook, so no fill is placed in tidal waters and no special exception from the council is required. In a September 16 memo, CRMC engineer Richard Lucia wrote that the alternative "provides the best option to protect not only the bridge and the overlook, but the public accessible cliff walk itself." The stone bridge will be secured by drilling at its foundation.
What Still Stands Between Now and 2028
The city needed CRMC approval before it could apply for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, so that application is the next step. Newport also still has to run a competitive solicitation for the engineering and construction firms that will do the work. City spokesperson Tom Shevlin told Rhode Island Current that the timeline depends on both.
"I think we'd need one good working season to get this thing done."
Tom Shevlin, City of Newport spokesperson, as quoted by Rhode Island Current
He suggested the walkway could reopen sometime in 2028.
Funding is not what's holding things up. Rhode Island Current puts the project at about $23 million, made up of a $13.8 million federal grant, a $6.25 million congressional appropriation and a $3 million state bond. The Cliff Walk Commission's 2025 year-end summary lists the money another way: a $5 million federal earmark, an $11 million federal PROTECT grant, $3 million from the Rhode Island Green Bond and $3.75 million from the general obligation bond Newport voters approved in 2024. The two breakdowns don't match line by line, but the totals are close. Newport This Week reported that the City Council signed the $11 million PROTECT grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration on August 12.
Nobody has settled who pays to maintain the private stone bridge. At the CRMC meeting, City Solicitor Girard Galvin said he expected the Ochre Point owners to keep handling maintenance, and the owners' attorney disagreed. Shevlin later said the cost would likely be shared between the city and the property owners, as it is on other parts of a walkway whose ownership is itself unclear.
The Detour Is This Winter's Route
The closed segment is short. Newport This Week described the rehabilitation as 550 feet between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street. Ocean State Media put it at about 500 feet. The way around it uses three streets. Going south, per a June 2025 Providence Journal guide:
- Leave the path at Forty Steps and head west on Narragansett Avenue.
- Turn south on Ochre Point Avenue.
- Turn east on Webster Street and rejoin the walk.
The detour is easier now than when it first opened. The City built a new sidewalk on the ocean side of Ochre Point Avenue for walkers. In 2025 it also improved Webster Street so the pedestrian area, which is part of the detour, is easy to pick out. Detour signs are posted, and the City asks walkers to stay out of the restricted area.
Where the Walk Changes Character
The City describes the route as 3.5 miles, from Memorial Boulevard at Easton's Beach to the Bailey's Beach exit. The detour sits on the easier end of it. Discover Newport describes the section from Memorial Boulevard to Ruggles Avenue as paved and relatively easy. It also notes that the path's width and grade vary and don't meet ADA standards everywhere. South of Ruggles the path turns unpaved and rocky. Some spots call for mild rock climbing, especially between Ruggles and Marine Avenue and between Marble House and Ledge Road.
Ten official access points let you choose a section without walking the whole length:
- Paved northern stretch: Memorial Boulevard/Easton's Beach, Cliff Terrace, Seaview Avenue, Narragansett Avenue/Forty Steps, Webster Avenue, Shepard Avenue
- Where the pavement ends: Ruggles Avenue
- Rugged southern stretch: Marine Avenue, Ledge Road, Bellevue Avenue/Bailey's Beach
The City's trail markers on the northern half include Forty Steps, Ochre Court and The Breakers. Farther south you pass Marble House and its Chinese Tea House, then Rough Point, then Land's End, The Waves and Bailey's Beach. If you enter at Webster or Shepard, everything from The Breakers south is open without the detour. A walk that starts at Easton's Beach has to take the detour before it reaches The Breakers.
The Off-Season Math on Parking
The detour adds a few blocks, but parking near the trail costs less in the off-season. Here is the 2026 schedule from Discover Newport's parking guide:
| Where | Through Oct. 31 | Nov. 1 to Nov. 30 | Dec. 1 to Mar. 31 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easton's Beach lot, off Memorial Boulevard | $25 weekdays, $35 weekends and holidays | $25 weekdays, $35 weekends and holidays | Free |
| Metered street parking citywide | Posted rates | No fee, 3-hour limit until 6 p.m. | No fee, 3-hour limit until 6 p.m. |
During the paid season, the beach-side meters on Memorial Boulevard are listed at $2 an hour with a three-hour limit. Narragansett Avenue has a four-hour limit. Street parking near the walk is limited along Memorial Boulevard and at the Narragansett Avenue entrance. Residential sticker rules differ from street to street, so check the posted signs before leaving a car on a side street near an entrance. Rates can change during the season, and the posted signs are what count.
Smaller Work You May See First
The main repair is at least a season away. Smaller projects come first and are more likely to show up on a walk this winter.
Fencing. At its September 29 meeting, the Cliff Walk Commission heard that the city plans to replace fencing near Forty Steps this fall, paid for with federal Wind Turbine Mitigation Funding, according to Newport This Week. A bid award for replacement fencing along the Cliff Walk was on the City Council's September 16 agenda, per a What's Up Newp preview.
Paving. The city wants to repave the stretch from Memorial Boulevard to Forty Steps. Commission chair Peter Janaros told the commission that the project is still in engineering.
A plan for the whole walk. Planning for a Cliff Walk master plan began before the collapse. The Commission's year-end summary says a $200,000 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, received in December 2025, will pay for the plan and a baseline survey of conditions along the entire walk. Newport This Week's October report puts the master-plan grant at $150,000, a figure that doesn't match the Commission's. It also reports that the city is reissuing its request for proposals after getting only one bid for consulting on the plan.
For the 550 feet between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street, the order of events is now set: an Army Corps permit, contractor bids, then one working season of construction. Until then, the route is the sidewalk on Ochre Point Avenue.
Questions about the shoreline near the Cliff Walk usually come down to what has been decided and what hasn't. William Darling follows the permits, votes and timelines along Newport's coast and can tell you where things stand on a particular street. If the Cliff Walk figures into a decision you're making, schedule a consultation.
