Environment, fishing »
Folks fixing Gulf State Park Pier deserve praise
By Jeff Dute
November 15, 2009, 4:30AM
RYAN DEZEMBER/Press-Register
Waves crash by the Gulf State Park Pier on Monday around noon. Pier video showed that waves began blowing out the sacrificial panels at 11:30 that night.
The folks down at Gulf State Park who worked to get half of it opened Friday and are repairing the other half ought to be getting a bunch of "Atta boys" and "Atta girls" from all of us.
Yeah, it’s a bummer that a tropical storm knocked part of the pier out of commission for a few days, but that was a valuable lesson learned without costing fishermen too many days without access to the pier.
That tropical storm was at one time a Category 2 hurricane and even though it was downgraded before it hit the Alabama coast, there was still plenty of Cat 2 energy left in it. Plus, the waves it generated came ashore during a nighttime high tide, compounding their height.
I’m not making excuses for the damage on the pier because the bottom line is that the sacrificial panels worked how they were supposed to.
They’re designed to blow out, reducing the chance the pressure of waves crashing against the pier decking shifts or cracks the substructure’s concrete pilings and piling caps.
That’s what would happen on the old pier, causing it to be shut down for long stretches of time to be repaired. It took such a beating over the years that by the time Hurricane Ivan hit, it was too weak to sustain such a blow.
No one can say that another hurricane like Ivan or Katrina won’t wipe the new pier away, too.
I’ve heard some of the grumbling about such "a little storm" damaging the pier. I’m not an engineer, designer or pier builder, but I have to believe that our $16 million bought us an engineering/design/construction package that’ll ensure the new pier will be here for a long time.
Assistant park superintendent Trey Myers said recently that park personnel are already planning how to minimize damage when subsequent storms hit.
I think their preliminary plan to remove the 400-pound panels closest to the pilings — which were the only panels to blow out — before a storm hits obviously makes sense. What they’ll be able to do in reality will depend on how much time they have before a storm hits and having the manpower to do the job.
State parks personnel admitted they didn’t expect as much damage to wiring and lighting, but I’m sure that’s a problem they’ll address, too.
Myers told me Friday afternoon that he’d planned on having the pier opened to the first platform by the Saturday after Ida damaged it Monday night. They beat that deadline by a day when it opened out to the mid-section at 7:30 Friday morning.
Myers also told me he hoped the remainder of the pier where the panels were being reset by employees of the pier’s builder, LCI Inc. of Memphis, would be open for fishing by Thanksgiving weekend or sooner.
I’ve known Myers for a while. He’s a pier fisherman, having fished the old pier for more than a decade. I also can say he was just as happy and proud that the new one was built as any of the "old-timers."
He and everyone else associated with the state parks division understand that not only has the pier once again become a premier fishing destination for locals and tourists, it is the engine that will drive an increased revenue flow to all parks.
We should all accept the fact that there may be storms that shut down all or parts of our new pier from time to time. Its design should ensure there will always be enough of it left worth fixing.
Contact Outdoors Editor Jeff Dute at:
jdute@press-register.com
His column appears on Sundays in the Press-Register.
BUMMER! 
To a speedy reconstruction . The mangroves should be loaded up under it right now.
Sucks! Sorry to hear and see that guys. After some of Cotton's reports I have been wanting to visit my cousin and uncle up there and fish that pier. I hope they fix your pier ASAP, you all have been hanging some good fish up there. Good luck!
