Matt Young with Alabama State Parks says the target date for the completion of Gulf State Park’s pier is still on schedule to be finished by the end of summer. It was damaged by Hurricane Sally on Sept. 16, 2020. Young is the Southwest District Superintendent and covers Gulf State Park, Meaher State Park in Mobile and Roland Cooper State Park near Camden.

“Percentage-wise it’s hard to say,” Young said. “Project-wise we’ve completed all of the superstructure work, which is really good. I hate to give you a percentage because we really don’t have that, but what I can tell you is that all the pilings are now in place. All of the stringer and girder work is being completed, they’re reconnecting power out to the octagon so they can start assessing and working on the elevator out in that site.”

And, while he can’t put a percentage done number on the whole project, Young says things are lining up nicely for hitting the target date.

“As far as the completion deadline, we’re still on track to hit a late summer completion and reopening,” Young said. “That’s very exciting. We’ve had virtually no hiccups along the way, so that’s good.”

Most of the panels covering the deck were recovered after Sally and have been refurbished before being reinstalled. Young said the pier was designed, so the panels would blow out during a storm and minimize damage from storms.

“The panels that we collected after Sally, a good portion of them have been refinished so they’re ready to go back in,” Young said. “For the ones that couldn’t be refinished, all the lumber’s ordered and they are currently building those panels. Following Sally, a majority of those panels we were able to recollect them. They just needed to be sanded down and resealed.”

Pilings blown down or damaged in Sally have been replaced and repaired as well.

“We replaced 17 that were down,” Young said. “Another thing that we found was at the octagon some of the existing concrete pilings had started to crack and normally concrete does that. In addition to all the repairs we did, they also went in and assessed the existing concrete that did have cracks in it. A company came in and has done some underwater work to seal those cracks and to make sure that the integrity remains for the existing structures as well. The enemy being saltwater getting into anything that’s metal and a lot of concrete has metal framing in it. We went ahead and took advantage of that moment to fix that as well.”

The completed parts of the pier remained closed to the public and will remain closed until it is released by the contractor.

“The pier will not open until the contractor’s completely finished and that’s just due to liability,” Young said. “In essence, the contractor owns the pier until the project is complete and signed over back to the state.”

One exception is the Fourth of July fireworks display which will go off at 9 p.m.

“We have approval from the contractor and we’re working with the city of Gulf Shores to do the fireworks show that’s been conducted the last several years off the pier,” Young said. “The pier just won’t be open. We won’t be permitting anybody up on the pier or in the parking lot, but the public is welcome to gather on the beaches as they normally did and north of the highway as they usually do to watch the fireworks show. We welcome that.”

The project will ultimately cost about $13.9 million with 90% paid for by FEMA and 10% paid by State of Alabama.