Mayor says Battery extension designed as a promenade; city expects construction contract for first phase in about a year

Mayor William Cogswell and a U.S. Army Corps commander told a Post and Courier Rising Waters forum that Charleston’s much-debated Battery extension will be designed to "marry form and function" — a promenade that protects against storm surge while serving as a public linear park.

Cogswell said the city finalized an alignment after revising a prior chief’s report and broke the project into phases "primarily for funding purposes." He said the smallest first segment will extend from the area outside the event venue toward Waterfront Park and that "we are in design phase now, and we anticipate having a construction contract in roughly a year from now, for the 1st phase." The mayor added that subsequent phases would follow annually as funding allows.

The mayor emphasized the project’s dual goals: protection and public amenity. "We want this to be a promenade, that not only keeps water out, but, again, provides a linear park around 5 miles of, the Peninsula Of Charleston," he said. He also noted design work modeled parts of the extension after the high battery and that cross-sections and elevation choices are central to the engineering work.

Panelist Lt. Col. Todd Mannering of the Army Corps stressed that the Corps is focused on performance and adaptability: designs will be "adjusted for storm, adjusted for sea level rise" and intended to be adaptable as conditions change. He said the Corps has incorporated community input into feasibility and design work.

The forum left timing and full visual renderings partly unresolved for the public: while the city signaled a construction contract is likely within a year for phase one, exact dates for ‘‘shovels in the ground’’ and first public renderings were not fixed at the event. The panel encouraged continued public engagement as design details are refined.