Hooray - it's open

The walkway from Point Pleasant Park out along the breakwater to the end of Pier C (Halterm) has finally reopened to the public!
Now that the extension to Pier C is completed, we can get up close and more personal to inbound and outbound ships.The new walk around the pier is not as generous as the one it replaced-it is very narrow and it does not extend all the way across the end of the pier. It will certainly not be large enough to accommodate the crowds that usually convene to see the Cunarders sail, and it will prove difficult to keep clear of snow in winter. (The old one was wide enough for a bobcat.) All this seems to me to be unnecessarily stingy, but at least it is available and open.
The authorities cited security and safety concerns from ships lines, to explain why the walkway doesn't extend all the way across the end of the pier.
In my opinion these issues could have been dealt with by a more sensitive and accommodating design process. Nevertheless, it is now cast in concrete and will be there for better or for worse, for a long time.

An easy 4 1/2 minute walk will get you from the Point Pleasant Park lower parking lot to the end of the pier.

Work Really Starts

Work has now really started on the extension of pier 42. McNally Construction has been gearing up for the last week or so, and this week they got rolling.

As predicted when I jumped the gun on January 7, 2010, the entire walkway from the park to the end of pier has been closed for the duration of the project. This is too bad, but we are promised that there will be a new viewing platform at the seaward end of the extended pier.

In January McNally drove sheet piles on the face of pier 42 to accommodate future work. Now the future work has started, with demolition of the viewing platform at the end of the pier. Included in the new work will be some dredging and digging, then driving piles, forming the new pier walls and filling. It will therefore be many months before we will have that wonderful vantage point for ship watching.

Some of the work will be conducted from the land side, but there will also be sea side work, although this may be largely invisible. I will post updates.

See the January 7 posting for an impression of the extension.