A funny thing happened on the way to revitalizing Pulaski Park on the Delaware River in Port Richmond. A major construction project at the riverfront park began in early September 2011 and was on schedule for completion in late spring /early summer 2012.

Construction was chugging along with the grassy knoll that blocked river views from the street being leveled flat and the fishing pier getting a new façade of brick walkways along with a previously constructed fishing friendly pier fence.  This project was due in part thanks to a grant from DCNR and State Representative John J. Taylor. Progress was looking good but it came to a screeching halt just before the Thanksgiving Holiday, 2011.

On November 18, 2011, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Department of Public Property received a “Condition Survey Report for Pulaski Pier 127N” conducted by Urban Engineers, Inc. for the City of Philadelphia.

This survey was conducted as part of the City’s routine inspection process to evaluate the integrity of pier structures as required by the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code. The inspection and survey were not conducted in relation to the ongoing site improvements nor were they requested by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation in response to conditions that developed or became evident once the site work was underway.  So in laymen’s terms, this was just a routine inspection of the pier and it just so happened that construction was going on. However-what the pier inspectors found was unfortunately bad news.

To summarize the findings: “The timber crib, concrete seawall, steel sheetpile wall and topside were inspected by a registered Professional Engineer in conformance with the triennial structural assessment requirement of the City code. The pier was found to be in Serious Condition due to localized failure of timber cribbing below a section of cracked, settled and bowing seawall. This area of the pier should be barricaded to prevent public access and loads. The remainder of the pier is safe to accommodate the current use. “

The City of Philadelphia moved into action and based on the report recommendations, Public Property instructed the project contractor, Donata Spaventa & Sons to cease work and to “install barriers or fence around a 35 ft. radius of the failed crib structure to restrict access.”

This was completed immediately and construction has been halted since that time in November 2011. To provide perspective, the pier is approximately 530 ft long and 100 ft wide. The barricaded area is approximately 100ft long and 35ft wide which represents a relatively small portion of both the pier and current work area. But there is some good news.

“Approximately 50% of the project is already completed,” said Barbara McCabe of Philadelphia Parks and Rec Development Division.  “Per the report, it is safe to have the contractor resume work on the unaffected areas of the park but we can not, and I stress this can not have residents breaching the safety fencing and accessing the pier.”

Even though a high cyclone fence was erected to prohibit people from going further out to the pier, the lock and fencing have been compromised and damaged because people keep cutting the lock and fence. “We had to fence it off because the pier is not safe for the public,” said McCabe who also said Parks and Rec have preliminary estimates of $50,000 to fund a study to determine the scope of required repairs and development of design plans for the recommended repairs.  If funded, the study will take three months and it looks like fully repairing the pier will cost in the range from $250K-800K.

Parts of Pulaski Park such as the parking lot and a small portion of the southside fishing fenced area are usuable right now for the public and Parks and Rec stresses to park users not to climb, cut or move the fence to gain access to the fishing pier.

But the public keeps ignoring the security fencing and warnings. The weekend of March 23-25th, two men were pulled from the river by Philadelphia firefighters after they jumped in the water to swim from the pier.

By early summer 2012, the investigation and costs will be finished and the next step will be to try and repair the damaged pier.