After months of delays, work on the new Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters and comfort station at Baltimore Avenue and the Boardwalk is set to begin soon. However, in advance of that project beginning, city officials announced other infrastructure projects are complete.

During a commissioner workshop Dec. 4, Interim City Manager Evan Miller said street paving on Scarborough Avenue, from Hickman Street north to Christian Street, and Laurel Street, from Bayard Avenue to Scarborough Avenue, is complete. The water main replacement project for the third block of Laurel Street is also finished, he said.

Miller said repairs to the stormwater outfall from Scarborough Avenue Extended to Silver Lake are also done. 

New plantings for the area disturbed during the stormwater outfall work are expected to be installed in the spring, said Miller.

Following the meeting, Public Works Director Kevin Williams said the city budgeted $800,000 for the paving and water main projects, but they were completed at a cost of $743,036.

As for the stormwater outfall project, Williams said the city budgeted $97,000, but it came in at $89,000.

A third project recently completed, but not discussed at the commissioner meeting, is the fit-out of city hall’s third floor.

Williams said the city budgeted $395,000, but with everything completed except door hardware on two doors, the actual cost was $125,000. The reason for the savings is because the city was able to manage the work in-house by getting various subs to do the work, he said.

A fourth project, also not discussed at the meeting, is the rebuilding of the wastewater pump station on State Road, which handles all the wastewater flow from the city, Henlopen Acres and North Shores.

Work on this $2.5 million project began in early May. Williams said the cost to date is $1.45 million. It’s expected to be completed in late February about $200,000 under budget.

As for the beach patrol project, work has begun to install fencing around the site, said Miller during the meeting.

Williams said it will take the contractor weeks to prepare for demolition.

Commissioners awarded a $4.9 million contract for a new beach patrol/restroom facility to Delmarva Veteran Builders. The approved design keeps the same function for the new building, but turns it into a two-story structure with public restrooms and family changing stations on the first level, and the beach patrol headquarters on the second.

The expectation had been that work would start soon after Labor Day, but procedural delays pushed back the start date. However, in an effort to still complete the project in full by May 2025, the commissioners modified the construction timeline to include construction through the summer of 2024. Originally, the plan was to finish the comfort station portion of the project by the start of the 2024 summer season, take a four-month break and resume work soon after Labor Day.