The southernmost dock at the Manitowoc Marina will be removed and replaced this winter for $1.5M, as officials say upgrades are critical for safety and tourism. PC: Fox 11 Online
MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The City of Manitowoc’s marina will undergo what officials say is a ‘critical infrastructure upgrade,’ replacing the most-used and most important of the five docks at the city’s marina.
Four of the five docks at the marina are more than four decades old, far older than the manufacturer’s life expectancy, according to Rich Larsen, the Manitowoc Marina President.
This winter, the southernmost dock, dock ‘A,’ will be removed and an entirely new dock will replace it.
“This dock is an important dock because it’s what we call our ambassador to the marina,” says Larsen. “If you’re new to the marina, coming in from the lake, this is the first dock you’re going to see. Quite often if you have to stop for fuel or get your sanitation system pumped out on your boat, that’s going to occur on this dock.”
On the surface, the dock doesn’t appear to be in bad shape. That’s because most of the issues are hidden below the decking, which Larsen calls a ‘band-aid’ to cover up the problems and to make it look good for the public.
“It’s been the structural steel fatigue, that’s what really causes the problems, and that’s been an ongoing problem on this dock for almost 10 years and we kind of patch it together, but it gets to be a point where you worry about a catastrophic failure so were just trying to be proactive to get out in front of that,” says Larsen about the importance of the dock’s replacement.
Larsen says minor failures typically happen mostly in the winter months due to ice damage. In those cases, the band-aid decking is pulled up to repair the steel infrastructure below.
Currently, the dock isn’t properly ADA-accessible, and it’s the same story for docks B, C, and D, too. Dock E was replaced in 2017 and is up to code.
“The biggest difference you’ll see is you’ll have a much longer walkway that’s going to extend to make the dock ADA-accessible so that’s going to be a big change,” Larsen says. “The other is that it will have an aggregate deck surface so it’s going to look like a stone surface, that’s nice too because we’ve found that that deck surface looks new 10 years after it’s done.”
However, the most important changes will be those you can’t see; an entirely new steel structure below the deck that will last for decades. Outdated electrical components on the dock will also be an issue of the past, too, when the new dock is in.
Larsen and Chris Marx, the marina’s general manager, say as much as the improvements are about safety, it’s also about economic growth for the city.
“A public marina like this, first of all, gives people access to the water. But, it brings a lot of economic tourism dollars into the city of Manitowoc, many transient boaters come and stay here, or seasonal boaters, they come from outside the city on many occasions and of course, they spend their dollars in town at restaurants and shops, and so forth,” Larsen says.
“We do, and our customers do too, we consider ourselves one of the premiere marinas on Lake Michigan, and if you want to be that, you have to keep your facilities up to date, up to code.”
The city and marina hope to replace docks B, C, and D in the coming years, too.
Dock A’s replacement comes with a $1.5M price tag, but a grant from the federal government will cover $500,000 of it.
The replacement will take place over the winter, and the new dock will be ready for next year’s boating season.
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