Aug. 31, 2006 — Although the V.I. Port Authority was hoping to have the south side of the Ann E. Abramson Pier in Frederiksted dredged by early August, that date has now been revised to mid-September.
According to Jeff Lawlor, VIPA senior engineer, the delay is due to the fact that contractors found more "rock-like material" to remove than was earlier estimated.
Now representatives from V.I. Cement and Building Products tell Lawlor the south side of the pier is "going to be completed and ready to demobilize Sept. 15."
The setback means the dredging scheduled for the north side of the pier will also be delayed.
The project was initiated to accommodate the new class of Voyager cruise ships, which require deeper waters to dock in. While the water depth on both sides of the 1,526-foot-long pier was adequate for smaller-sized cruise ships, the Voyager class would have been unable to dock at the pier without the dredging.
The original dredging contract included both the north and south sides of the pier. The contractors were scheduled to remove 25,000 cubic yards of sand and rubble on the north side and 22,000 cubic yards on the south side, to a width of 200 feet on each side.
The sea bed is to be dredged to 34 feet below mean sea level, providing 5 to 6 feet of extra "wiggle room" for cruise ships.
"We have achieved the required depth adjacent to the south side of the pier," Lawlor said. "We are working on the last pass."
Lawlor explained that the process of dredging is like "eating corn on the cob": you start from the top of one row and go to the bottom, then back to the top again.
This recent setback is just one in a series of problems experienced by the project, which VIPA approved in December 2004. Since then the work has experienced numerous delays, partly attributed to problems with permitting and application approvals.
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