Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pier without peer
Hurricane causes no delay in construction
Modern tech a big part of Pompano project.
POMPANO BEACH — Pompano Beach’s new pier will require enough concrete to cover an area a little bigger than a football field. It’ll also need enough wood to stretch almost 12 miles if the boards were placed end to end.
The old city pier, which has stood since John F. Kennedy was president, is being demolished, piece by piece, as it undergoes a complete rebuilding.
Tom Savino, 69, a retiree from Margate, walks Pompano Beach Boulevard almost every morning. He said he has been fascinated by the sight of the pier being removed piece by piece, and a new section put in its place, he said.
Now, the new pier is just big enough to hold a crane. And the crane is being used to dismantle the next section.
“The crane took one of the benches that had been on the pier and swung it over by the grassy area so we could sit and watch,” Savino said. “It’s interesting work.”
The pier was closed to the public in late May. Now, seven of the pier’s 40 spans have been completed, said Horacio Danovich, who is the manager of the city’s capital improvement projects.
At a distance, the east end of the pier looks as it has for the pier’s 54 years because work began at the west end of the walkway, which extends about 850 feet from shore.
The pier rebuilding was hastened by damage from hurricanes Wilma and Sandy, but Hurricane Irma didn’t touch a single board of the doomed pier.
And that’s probably going to give the $11.5 million project a better chance of finishing on time, early 2019, Danovich said.
“If Irma had done some demolition, we would have had to pick up the pieces from the bottom of the ocean,” Danovich said. “We had some cleanup, but they were back on construction by Tuesday.”
The new block of concrete at the pier’s west end stands in stark contrast to the next piling, of the old pier,
which is crumbled in places and marked with graffiti.
The largest piece of precast concrete for the new pier is going to weigh about 40,000 pounds.
Altogether, the concrete for the new pier will tip the scales at nearly 9 million pounds, according to Martin Murphy, project manager for Murray Logan Construction Co., the West Palm Beach outfit building the pier.
That’s about the same weight as 22 Boeing 747 airplanes.
Although the new pier is being built in the same place as the old pier, Pompano’s Danovich promises it will look markedly different.
The eastern end will be in the shape of a fish. The platform will be 4 feet higher to better resist storm surges and accommodate sea level rise. And instead of a straight walkway, the new pier will curve out in places like a balcony.
The curving parts of the new pier will be filled with benches — 17 of them in total, according to a city work order.
That’s quite a few more than the handful that were on the old pier.
“We’re going to … give people the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the views,” Danovich said.
Also, you can run your hand along the railway without any fear, he said.
“When you lay your arms on it, there will be no splinters,” he said.