GRAND HAVEN, MI - Work to remove Grand Haven's south pierhead catwalk is underway.
Crews from The King Company, the Holland-based marine contractor hired to handle the $84,000 project were on scene early on Monday, Aug. 29. Crews will remove the catwalk in sections over the course of the next seven to eight work days.
They will then transport it via barge up the Grand River for storage at the Verplank Trucking Co. site in Ferrysburg.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to begin a $2.1 million repair project of the pier on which the catwalk sits on Sept. 19. The historic catwalk, which is badly in need of repair and restoration, needs to be removed if it is to be saved.
The pier project will close the pier until summer 2017. It's the first major overhaul of the worn structure since the mid-1950s.
The pier extends about 1,400 feet into Lake Michigan and the catwalk runs most of it before ending at the lighthouse. Removal of the catwalk will be done in 200-foot sections. King Company officials started the removal process at the far west, or "lakeward" end of the pier.
The catwalk is being removed in 50-80 foot pieces by a crane sitting on a barge. The pieces, eight or so at a time, will be stacked on the barge and carried down the river to the storage facility where they will be set on the river bank.
A land crane will then move the pieces away from the river bank to a more permanent storage location. That process will continue until the catwalk is completely removed.
Once a section of the catwalk is removed, work will move closer to shore and another 200 feet of the pier will be closed to the public.
"The pier itself will be gradually shut down starting furthest out at the lighthouse," Grand Haven City Manager Pat McGinnis said last week, "...Going forward it will gradually be closed. Every couple days there will be less pier to walk on."