Doubts raised whether SGI fishing pier work will be finished by 4th of July

It doesn't look like repair work on the St. George Island fishing pier will be finished by the 4^th of July weekend.

County commissioners discussed the repair work on Tuesday and Clay Smallwood with the Prebble Rish engineering firm said it looks like it will take the Gulf Group out of Southwood, Florida at least another 30 days to finish - though he added the company may still surprise us.

At this point the company has removed much of the rubble from the bay bottom and has driven a test pile.

It is also working on the guardrail and pile caps on the north section of the damaged pier.

The pier, which is actually a section of the old St. George Island bridge, was damaged last June during Tropical Storm Debby when it was hit by a barge.

The barge knocked out three sections of roadway, leaving a 165 foot gap that makes it impossible for people to access much of the pier.

Last October the county commission approved a repair plan to replace the missing section of bridge with a 16 foot wide timber pier held up by concrete piles.

The Gulf Group is getting just over 566 thousand dollars to do the repairs –but there is a clause in their contract that says that the company will lose 300 dollars a day for every day past July the 1^st that the work is not complete.

Commissioner Pinki Jackel said the delay is really bothering her a lot especially because of the impact this has on local businesses as we enter the busy tourist season.

She asked that Prebble Rish keep up the pressure on the Gulf Group to get the job done as quickly as possible.

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