Barriers to the Beach, Part 2: Sandwich Boardwalk – A Success Story (Mostly)

Sandwich gets accessible boardwalk – but challenges persist

Text by Karen B. Hunter/Video by Anna Westerberg

Cape Cod’s beaches are its prize jewels—but cliffs, dunes, erosion, tides and endlessly shifting sands create universal access challenges. As the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) turned 35 in July, reporters from Cape Cod News.org and the Enterprise collaborated to explore just how accessible public beaches are and are not—and what is being done to improve access for all.

In this second installment of Barriers To The Beach, we look at the new Sandwich Boardwalk, how it was redesigned to be more accessible and the challenges that the ever-changing coastline still present to those trying to reach the beach. 

08 August 2025 – SANDWICH, MA – Lisa A. Judelson, chairwoman of the Sandwich Commission on Disability, is athletic and fit; she has no mobility issues. Yet she described being “terrified” to use the Sandwich Boardwalk before it reopened to the public on Memorial Day weekend in 2024 after a year-long reconstruction project which, for the first time, brought it up to Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.

Judelson is blind and relies on her guide dog, Iron, to navigate.

“My dog is trained to walk on the left,” she said, “So I am always walking against traffic.”

With no railings on the original boardwalk (except for the short section that crossed Mill Creek), she and Iron risked being nudged off the edge and into the marsh and smaller tidal creeks several feet below.

What is a disability?

“Many people believe that ‘disability’ means a wheelchair; that if a person is not in a wheelchair, then there is no disability. That’s not the way it is,” retired Sandwich building commissioner Brendan W. Brides said in a recent interview to discuss the reconstruction of the boardwalk, a project of personal interest.

“Of all the projects I was involved with in town, the boardwalk reconstruction was the most meaningful for me,” Brides said. “My wife and I had a daughter who was disabled and never crossed the boardwalk. She died before the new one was completed, but it meant a lot to us to see it go up.”

What is the Sandwich Boardwalk history?

The original Sandwich Boardwalk was constructed in 1875 to provide access from the old glass factory neighborhood over the great marsh to Town Neck Beach and the waters of Cape Cod Bay. The 1,300-feet-long boardwalk has served as a beacon of delight for generations.

Countless photographers have captured the iconic structure backlit at sunrise and sunset, and National Geographic once named it one of the “top 10 boardwalks” in the country.

Because the boardwalk is wide open to the elements and battered by the storms and hurricanes endemic to Cape Cod, the structure has been repaired and rebuilt several times over the years, but never was the beloved design changed.

As a result, lacking handrailings or any sort of bumper or other protection along its edge, the boardwalk was off limits to a large portion of the population who could not traverse it safely.

Why create an accessible boardwalk?

Throughout the years, townsfolk had discussed making the boardwalk more accessible to more people. But those discussions gained little traction until 2022 – And it took a blizzard to do it.

In late January that year a blizzard bashed the boardwalk to pieces, washing a large chunk of the decking away and leaving much of the rest of the structure looking like a wrung-out towel.

Because the storm caused in excess of $100,000 worth of damage, Brides said, regulations required that the new boardwalk  be fully accessible according to ADA standards, which state that newly designed and -constructed or significantly altered public facilities are readily accessible to, and usable by, people with disabilities.

As building commissioner, Brides was required to enforce Architectural Access Board 521CMR, which is Massachusetts’ adaptation to the ADA.

“This meant that the railings and slopes would have to be changed in the new design,” he said.

How hard was the change?

But some in town resisted the changes. They wanted their old boardwalk back, just the way it was.

“(Even) some who considered themselves leaders in the community pushed back against changes and improvements to the boardwalk,” Brides said. “We had a battle, but we persevered. We had a great team and a great select board.”

In the end, the new structure cost $3.2 million.

What is the new boardwalk like?

The new design is a success on many fronts: elevated for better protection against sea-level rise, grounded by helical piles—large, hollow, metal tubes that screw into the earth—to hold it as securely as possible during violent storms, and the structure is fully accessible to everyone.

“Even older folks who like to go across the boardwalk can now stop, lean on the railing, and look at the water,” Brides said. “Ironically, some of the naysayers, from what I understand, are very impressed now.”

“The new railings are like a dream for me; I feel safe when I walk on the boardwalk with my dog,” Judelson said.

“The new boardwalk is not the same as the original one, but it is beautiful in its own right and is a great improvement for everyone in our town. I am proud of it,” she said. “If something is built using tax money, it has to benefit everyone.”

Where does accessibility stop?

This good news story, however, only gets people partway to Cape Cod Bay. The boardwalk ends on the top of the dunes. And that is as far as accessibility goes.

The Sandwich Recreation Department prides itself on ensuring that the town’s resources are, to every extent possible, accessible for everyone.

“That is always our goal,” Sandwich recreation director Tricia C. MacDonald said.

Yet when it comes to Town Neck Beach, the recreation department, like everyone else, comes up against the dunes.

What is the problem with the dunes?

“We have steep dunes in conservation-protected zones,” MacDonald said. “The question is how can we be good environmental stewards, protecting the natural environment, which is what draws people to our area, and balance that with equity of access?”

“Our biggest obstacle is the battle of the sand,” she said. “Nature always wins that battle. No matter what we put down (such as mobility mats for easier accessibility), nature has a way of either taking it or moving it.”

Three paths cross the dunes to Town Neck Beach. One is at the boardwalk. The other two are a little farther west and lead directly from the parking lot.

None of them are fully accessible, despite efforts by the town recreation department and department of natural resources to make them more so, with proper signage about which path is easiest to cross, blue mobility mats laid over the sand and some handrails.

What does a mobility mat do?

Mobility mats are designed so that sand goes through them, but some sand inevitably stays on top and they can become slippery. Wherever the mat ends, “You still have the dynamic area underneath,” MacDonald said. “Even if we went out every morning to shovel and sweep, there would still be an area where you get a drop-off, which really does prevent the beach from being fully accessible.”

The incline of the protected dunes cannot be changed, which hinders the town’s ability to build a wooden ramp to ADA standards over them.

Also, all it takes is one storm, and the face of the beach can change dramatically. Dunes faces collapse; railings and mobility mats are torn out.

What is the ongoing battle?

“We are working against nature,” Commission on Disability member Jeannine A. Cullen said of the shifting sands.

For Cullen, the beach is her “happy place.”

“This is the best part of Sandwich. I love it here,” she said.

Cullen, like Judelson, is blind.

She grew up in Sandwich and said that in recent years, conditions at Town Neck have vastly improved for people with physical challenges, from the new boardwalk to the mobility mats on the dunes (noting the chronic problem of how slippery they become) to the clearly marked accessible parking spaces to the fully accessible portable bathrooms.

Walking past the bathrooms, she said accessible bathrooms are essential for people in wheelchairs, and also for anyone who needs the extra space to take a guide or support dog in with them, such as the blind and people with diabetes and epilepsy, for example.

“My dog doesn’t like it when I go into a bathroom without him,” Judelson said.

“Having a disability, it is so important to be able to do recreational activities independently,” she said.

What more can people do?

When it comes to Town Neck Beach, however, Cullen takes a sighted friend to help her over the dunes and down the steep slope down to the beach.

A handrailing on the beach stops short. “I could use another 10 feet of railing,” Cullen said. “My dog is trained to guide me, not pull me up or down an incline.”

“When one beach is not accessible, we try to seek alternatives,” MacDonald said. First Beach, also on the bay side (so named because it is the first beach one comes to after crossing the canal) has a straight shot from the parking lot via mobility mat to the high-water mark on the beach.

How can towns respond?

“Every coastal town has the same issue and each town has a different budget,” MacDonald said. “Towns can invest millions of dollars and it gets washed out in one storm.”

“The department of natural resources is amazing to work with—they try to keep an open mind, move sand where they can within reason, and they have always been good about putting in and adjusting railings because they have the machinery,” she said.

MacDonald credits her staff with “thinking outside of the box” and asking, “How can we make this better?”

“The building department, facilities department and the DNR are all huge advocates for accessibility,” she said. “We all have to work together and pool resources.”

What are beach wheelchairs?

The Sandwich Recreation Department purchased four beach wheelchairs, two of which are “floating wheelchairs” that work alongside a support person. The other two, while not designed for the water, can be pushed along the sand.

A call the recreation department triggers use of the chairs and the departmen  has a truck and will help transport them if needed.

“We want everyone to have a good recreational experience,” MacDonald said. “Everyone’s ‘positive experience’ looks different because people are differently abled in many ways.”

“The situation with sand is always changing,” Judelson said. “The town is very responsive, but some things are feasible, and some are not.”

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Part 3: In our next installment Barriers to the Beach, Part 3: Rules of the Accessibility Road  we look at the regulations and requirements, and some of the ways designers and towns can solve them.

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Series Summary:

In part one, Getting to the Beach Isn’t Always Easy, we look at the ADA and the overall challenges of accessibility on Cape Cod’s beaches. Click here to read the story and watch the video Barriers to the Beach, Part 1: Getting to the Beach Isn’t Always Easy

In part  two, Sandwich Boardwalk – a Success Story (Mostly) we look at the successful re-imagining of the iconic Sandwich  Boardwalk, originally built in 1875, into an ADA compliant pathway. Click here to read the story and watch the video Barriers to the Beach, Part 2: Sandwich Boardwalk – A Success Story (Mostly)

In part three, Rules of the Accessibility Road, we look at the laws and regulations guiding accessibility, speaking with legal experts, and find out how the Town of Dennis created a structure to fund on-going universal access costs. Click here to read the story and watch the video Barriers to the Beach, Part 3: Rules of the Accessibility Road.

In part four, Where Waves Meet Reality, we look at some of the specific challenges of universal access in a constantly changing coastline. Click here to read the story and watch the video Barriers to the Beach, Part 4: Where Waves Meet Reality.

In part five, Rolling Over Barriers, we learn about technology solutions for crossing the sand. Click here to read the story and watch the video Barriers to the Beach, Part 5: Rolling Over Barriers.

Visit Series home landing page, Barriers to the Beach