WATERFRONT
CITY MARINA RESTORATION
2 YEARS FROM COMPLETION
GREG GARDNER
Currently the Fort Pierce City Marina has room for boats in its inner basin and along Moore’s Creek. The outer docks will be replaced after a storm protection
An expansion of the Fort Pierce Marina will add
138 new slips and an island system to protect them
BY SUSAN BURGESS
From the moment Manager Dean Kubitschek inspected
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the tattered remnants of Fort Pierce City Marina’s
docks after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004,
he knew the popular facility would be rebuilt.
He just didn’t know how long it would take.
All of the docks sticking out into the Indian River Lagoon
were gone after the September hurricanes. Docks in the
inner basin of the marina, with room for about 130 boats,
were damaged. New docks on the Indian River could not
be installed until a plan to protect them was approved and
permitted by state and federal agencies.
Making the best of it, Kubitschek repaired the inner basin
docks and reopened the marina without any docks on the river.
The project will be nearly into its seventh post-hurricane
year by the time work starts to replace the 126 slips that
were destroyed on the eastern side.
Plans call for 138 new slips and 13 new islands in the river
to protect them, said Ed Seissiger, who has overseen the
project for the city of Fort Pierce since 2005. If all goes well,
the work will be completed by January 2013, 18 months after
it starts, he said.
The first five months after the hurricanes were spent
removing sunken boats and docks from the bottom of the
Indian River Lagoon, and making plans for the restoration.
City officials knew they wanted to protect the marina from
future damage, but they weren’t certain of the best way to do
that. Realizing that the inner basin had fared far better than
the eastern side, they considered a breakwater. But eventu-
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system is created in the Indian River.