Cruise ships overwhelming Mallory Square pier

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Although Key West residents voted down a plan last year to consider allowing super-sized cruise ships to dock here, even the regular size ships are overwhelming the docking resources currently available in the harbor.

The Mallory Square T-Pier, The T-shaped, concrete dock located in front of the Square where the nightly Sunset Celebration takes place, is currently used by cruise ships as a “mooring dolphin” to tie its anchoring lines to. The pier is also used by cruise ship passengers and crew for access to the ships. But the T-Pier, which was last upgraded in the 1980s, can’t adequately stand up to the stress put on it by 150,000-ton vessels, particularly in stormy weather.

“When the wind blows, you have to have a lot of pilings in place. We don’t have the strength to hold them [cruise ships] in place during certain weather,” according to Interim City Manager Jim Scholl.

“The T-Pier was never really designed to take the size ships that are coming into Mallory now. It’s taken a beating,” said Doug Bradshaw, Port and Marine Services Director. “It’s safe now but we’re in the upper limits [of structural safety].”

As a result, city commissioners have given the go-ahead to a $1.237 million renovation of the T-Pier that will involve demolishing about 25 percent of the structure on its north end and installing a new mooring dolphin. The new dolphin will actually not be attached to the existing T-Pier but will stand by itself to help take stress off of the older structure. Once contractors finish driving new piles into the ocean floor, laying down a concrete structure and attaching fenders, the top of the new dolphin and the existing pier will be bricked over so that the two structures look like one.

“It will look just the same,” Bradshaw said. “It’s within the same footprint.”

The state Department of Transportation has approved a $762,000 grant to help pay 61.5 percent construction costs, with the city kicking in the remaining $475,500. However, there may be additional DOT grants available to bring the state’s contribution up to 75 percent.

Bradshaw said he expects construction bids to go out by the end of the year. The T-Pier dolphin project will be combined for bidding purposes with another municipal project, replacing the seawall at the Gulf end of Duval Street. Construction could begin in March or April 2015.

Structural upgrades were done to the other end of the city pier about four or five years ago, Bradshaw said. At that time, the bollards – the short, vertical posts that a ship’s lines are tied to – were replaced with stronger anchoring structures.

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