CHATHAM – Safety concerns at The Chatham Fish Pier arose after a fork lift damaged a support post of the pier the day after Labor Day.
The safety hazards were realized only when the town made repairs the following day, prompting town officials to close the pier.
A total of $1 million was approved by town officials earlier this year to replace the deck, which Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith says will include a list of additional improvements.
“The plan is to take down the existing deck and replace it, make the deck slightly larger, have a second means of egress on the south end of the observation deck for emergencies, locate the support posts for the deck so they’re less vulnerable to getting damaged, and moving the existing fuel lines and dispensers and then replacing them when the deck is completed,” Smith explained.
The project, which is expected to go to bid at the end of September, will keep the town’s most popular tourist destination closed until it’s completion. The structure is extremely popular due to the convenience of Fish Pier Market and the opportunity for tourists to watch the commercial fishing vessels unload their catch.
“It’s the number one tourist attraction in Chatham. We have literally tens of thousands of people using it. It’s very popular to watch the fishing boats unload,” said Smith.
“This is an effort to bring the observation deck into the Twenty-First Century, make it a little larger, more user friendly, make it handicap accessible, so it’s going to be a nice deck when it is done.”
By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center
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