PORT ANGELES — New mooring floats are being installed at City Pier this week to the delight of boaters and organizers of a first-year maritime festival.
The six new floats, which replace five old docks that were removed in 2012, are being towed from storage on Ediz Hook to their seasonal home on the leeward east side of the pier.
Crews on Tuesday used a crane to hoist the 80-foot gangway onto sections of dock for transport to the pier.
Transportation across Port Angeles Harbor is contingent on tide conditions and equipment availability.
City officials hoped to have all six floats in place by the end of this week.
“The crews are doing a great job getting them installed,” Corey Delikat, Port Angeles Parks and Recreation director, said Tuesday.
The long-awaited floats will allow the tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain to dock at City Pier during the inaugural Port Angeles Maritime Festival June 9-10.
“We’re excited to be able to bring in two of the tall ships for the maritime festival and bunch of other boats,” said Marc Abshire, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director and one of the organizers of the festival.
Abshire said the new floats will enhance the event and “draw a lot of attention” to the pier throughout the boating season.
“It’s going to raise the overall look of the pier and the activity down there, which is great because it’s a very gorgeous setting,” Abshire said.
Abshire and Delikat credited Jack Harmon of Arrow Launch Service for helping with the installation.
The new docks have a permeable, metal surface that will allow sunlight to reach the water and provide better traction than the old wooden-surface floats, Delikat has said.
A new gangway replaces a 40-foot ramp that was too steep for wheelchair access.
All told, the new floats will offer 720 linear feet of moorage space for boaters and kayakers.
The docks were constructed by Topper Industries, Inc., of Woodland.
The city used a $257,948 federal grant and $48,591 in real estate excise taxes to pay for the infrastructure.
Construction of the new floats was postponed in 2015, 2016 and 2017 because of delays with the federal grant.
“It was definitely a long process, but the end result is the community got their floats in, and we’re excited for that,” Delikat said.
Temporary tie-ups for recreational boaters will be free. Overnight moorage will cost $20.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Port Angeles Parks Department workers walk along a section of a new floating dock waiting for installation at Port Angeles City Pier on Tuesday. Transportation of additional floats from storage at Ediz Hook would be contingent on tide conditions and equipment availability. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
