"Piermont Pier’s Final Section Closed Amid Risk Of Collapse".

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2024/11/29/piermont-ny-pier-on-hudson-river-closed-amid-risk-of-collapse/76656006007/
 
Rockland
 
Piermont Pier’s Final Section Closed Amid Risk Of Collapse.
Nancy Cutler
Rockland/Westchester Journal News
 
“In the interest of public safety, we regret that the entire cement portion of the Pier will be blocked to pedestrians until further notice,” according to a village notice.
 
“We got that thing and we were like, “Oh my God!’ Let’s just stop it right at the end of the blacktop and not let anyone get close,” Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker said.
 
PIERMONT ‒ Anyone looking to take a Thanksgiving Day stroll to the end of the Piermont Pier found it shuttered, with a “Do Not Enter” sign blocking the concrete portion of the path.
 
The damaged portion was built at the end of the historic pier in the 1950s. The Hudson’s brackish water led to damage that could destabilize it, according to a report by an engineering firm hired by the village.
 
“In the interest of public safety, we regret that the entire cement portion of the Pier will be blocked to pedestrians until further notice,” according to a village notice.
 
BlueShore Engineering reported on Nov. 26 that deterioration had significantly advanced in the cement portion since the previous inspection. “There are numerous areas at imminent risk of failure,” the firm’s correspondence states.
 
“The pier is still open for recreation, it’s just the very end,” Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker said Friday.
 
The end of the Piermont Pier, a concrete portion added in the 1950s, was shut Nov. 27, 2024, after an engineering report warned it was unsafe.
 
[‘Reinforcing is completely gone’]
 
The concrete portion of the pier was last checked by BlueShore Engineering seven years ago. A new evaluation, in five to eight years, was recommended then.
 
Piermont Village Volunteer Fire Department’s dive team recently took measurements of the pilings and sent it to BlueShore Engineering.
 
According to the report, the cross-flow current of the estuary could cause ice floes or logs or similar debris to float down- or up-river in the current and contact a failed pile. That could lead to overload of adjacent piles and cause a progressive collapse of the concrete, “because the reinforcing is completely gone.”
 
Tucker said the village received the report late Tuesday night. “The first thing Wednesday morning DPW put the barrier out,” he said.
 
BlueShore reported to the village than an in-place repair would be possible but costly.
 
The firm’s takeaway: It would less expensive to perform a complete demolition and replace the section.
 
[Impact of blocked access to pier]

The pier is mostly used for recreation, from fishing to walking, running and cycling.
 
The Sloop Clearwater, run by the environmental organization of a similar name, docks several times a year as it provides lessons. A cruise ship company in 2021 asked the village for permission to dock there for its Hudson tours, but the village’s consultant said then that the ship was too big for the pier to accommodate.
 
Tucker said that lots of activities can still take place, just not at the short concrete path and square at the very end.
 
Tucker said the conditions, documented by the Piermont firefighters, set off alarms, Tucker said. “We got that thing and we were like, “Oh my God!’ Let’s just stop it right at the end of the blacktop and not let anyone get close.”
 
A drone view of the Piermont Pier May 4, 2023. The nearly mile-long pier was built in the 1800s for the Erie Railroad. During World War II, soldiers from Camp Shanks boarded boats at the end of the pier on their way to Europe. Pilings that formed a berth for large ships can still be seen at left.
 
Tucker said that the concrete portion, added in the 1950s, is on pilings. The rest of the pier, which is blacktop, was build on bedrock a century earlier.
 
“Similar wear and tear was seen on the old Tappan Zee Bridge,” which was opened in 1955 and replaced in 2017, Tucker said about the concrete portion of the pier. “They were built at the same time.”
 
[Can it be fixed? At what cost?]
 
No price estimate has been made available for either a repair or replacement.
 
Tucker said he believes it could be in the millions.
 
Federal representatives, including U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, and U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-Pearl River, have been looped-in, Tucker said. The Village Board was working on obtaining cost quotes to replace the concrete portion, which includes seeking grants.
 
“We are going to need some major money here”, Tucker said. “If anyone has any money, we’d love to talk to them”.
 
[Pier’s history]
 
Built by the Erie Railroad starting in 1838, with tracks extending out to the end of the mile-long pier, the Piermont Pier has played a key role in local and U.S. history.
 
The Erie Railroad, at the time in opened in 1851, was the longest railroad in the world. People would come up on ferries to catch the train to Lake Erie.
 
The railroad also served the village’s paper mill, which opened in 1902.
 
During World War II, the pier was the embarkation point for thousands of soldiers leaving for Europe from nearby Camp Shanks.
 
The railroad tracks were later removed.
 
The paper mill closed in 1982, and the pier was converted to recreational use sometime afterward.
 
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2024/11/29/piermont-ny-pier-on-hudson-river-closed-amid-risk-of-collapse/76656006007/