On Monday, the City of Duluth officially reopened the popular Duluth destination of Brighton Beach at Kitchi Gammi Park. 

“Brighton Beach and Kitchi Gammi Park are probably the most visited park in the city of Duluth, one of the most heavily, both by residents and by tourists alike. It’s kind of the gateway to the north shore. It’s the last stop out of the Duluth, but it’s one that almost everybody stops at,” said Cliff Knettel, assistant manager of Duluth Parks and Recreation.

For the past few years, Brighton Beach has been a construction zone with what seemed to be no end in sight.

“That was a loss to our community. But now we’re open. It’s bigger and better than ever. We’ve made it more accessible. We’ve made it more resilient for the long term and we’ve made it more enjoyable by some of the amenities that we’ve added,” said Knettel.

Talks of renovating the shoreline location began in 2015, but plans changed in 2019 after multiple major storms destroyed areas of beach and its infrastructure.

“We engaged in a strategy that’s called ‘managed retreat’, where rather than rebuilding public infrastructure in place to absorb hammering, we relocate public infrastructure as much as possible to be out of the harm’s way,” said Jim Filby Williams, leader of the City of Duluth’s Property, Parks, and Libraries Department.

The project took place in four stages beginning with the extension of the Duluth Lakewalk, reconstructing public infrastructure farther away from the shoreline, constructing a new and improved roadway and adding more accessible amenities such as permanent bathrooms.

“We wanted to make sure that the park could be preserved and enjoyable for people to use for the long term,” said Knettel.

Now that the area is completed and reopen to the public, the improvements made to the park help to keep it a landmark to remember for years to come.

“thank you for the abundant patience of our residents. It has been a long time and we are very pleased to be able to return this to our citizens,”

Click here to learn more about Brighton Beach and Kitchi Gammi Park.