Feb. 23, 2004 – Fishermen at the Frederiksted public boat access facility hauled in their catches and hitched their boat to its trailer on Monday evening alongside the shell of a pier that has been under reconstruction since December 2002.
The stalled project was originally scheduled for completion last March.
In a release issued on Friday, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett said work would resume on Monday. He also said the facility would remain closed to the boating public until the project is completed and asked for cooperation from the community to ensure public safety while the work proceeds.
Plaskett said at an April 2001 hearing that the work would entail removal of the remains of the pier structure, damaged in Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and other hurricanes since, and the design and construction of a 10-foot wide, 80-foot long dock able to withstand a Category 5 storm. He also said the broken concrete north ramp would be replaced with a new concrete and reinforced-steel structure, and that the south ramp would be extended. (See "Fishermen's pier closed for reconstruction".)
Planning and Natural Resources received nearly $30,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in April 2000 to rebuild the dock. Plaskett said at the April 2001 hearing that bid requests were advertised, but prospective contractors turned the project down, saying the money was insufficient for the job.
A release issued by Plaskett in December 2002 said new federal funding totaling $254,000 would be added to the FEMA grant to pay for the project.
Fishermen in the area on Monday said that personnel from the company contracted for the reconstruction visited the site on Monday and said work would resume on Tuesday and be completed within a week.
Efforts to reach Plaskett for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.
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