Maintenance? We didn’t budget for THAT
Two years ago I posted a photo of the new wooden boardwalk stairs in Las Toscas.
I had already posted a year before the state of the closest unmaintained boardwalk, railings completely gone.
Update on the Las Toscas boardwalk (the concrete stairs are still perfectly fine):
Until there is a will to do something about vandalism and theft, a maintenance budget would simply be wasted. Where are those missing railings? Not washed out to sea, so they have gone to someone´s home. The vandalism begins with graffiti, but escalates beyond that on some of these accesses. The idea of of public access to the beaches is wonderful. However, much like Uruguayan efforts to reduce bad driving, there is much to be done to end destruction.
Actually, I have walked almost daily on two of the boardwalks for several years now. The theft I’ve seen occurs after the rails have collapsed into uselessness. I’ve seen them lying on the ground. My guess is that nobody exerted effort to pry up the boardwalk planks in this photo. Being pine, they probably torqued so much in the sun that they pulled free, and possibly got as far as being dangerous to walk on. in my opinion, the lack of maintenance paved the way for the theft of (treated lumber for firewood – yikes!).
I used to walk the beach more often before transporting five dogs became ridiculous. I would agree with you that maintenance is the first issue.