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Pier Upgrades Near Completion At Ballast Point

Tribune photo by JAMIE PILARCZYK

An almost $1 million renovation project at the city's popular Ballast Point Pier in South Tampa is nearing completion.

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK

Published: March 6, 2009

TAMPA - A nearly renovated Ballast Point Pier once again is offering fishermen and sightseers one of South Tampa's best views of downtown Tampa and the sweep of Bayshore Boulevard.

The closing of the Friendship TrailBridge on the west side of the Interbay peninsula in December deprived some people of their favorite waterfront recreation spot. The Ballast Point Pier gives them an alternative.

Rafael Jones is among those who have come to appreciate the pier. He bumps into a lot of people who have made the Ballast Point Pier their substitute for the Friendship TrailBridge.

"It's really good fishing over here, too," said Jones, of Gandy/Sun Bay South. On a recent sunny morning, Jones had a line in Hillsborough Bay hoping for a strike from a sheepshead. "It's relaxing because of the downtown scenery, the park and the bait shop. It's real nice."

Cold, windy weather has been a challenge for the construction crew, Marine Contracting Group. Crew members have donned wetsuits and floated on rafts while reinforcing the pier's pilings with concrete. Despite that, work should end on time in late spring, said Laurie Potier-Brown with the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

The $966,200 project, which began in September, includes encasement of the degraded pilings; replacement of decking, railing, benches and fish cleaning stations; renovation of an existing shelter and the addition of a shelter at end of the pier.

There are seven access points for disabled people along the pier's railing. Adjacent to six of them are accessible fish-cleaning stations.

The old wooden boardwalk is being replaced by a composite material that should last longer and need less maintenance, said Potier-Brown.

This fall work will begin on an adjacent boat ramp, extending it 80 feet and installing a floating dock for mooring boats.

The work to the pier complements earlier improvements to Ballast Point Park done in 2006. Last summer the Tampa City Council approved $600,000 in additional improvements, including a water feature, and city officials are working with the Ballast Point Neighborhood Association on including a toddler playground.

Potier-Brown said the additional improvements will go out for bid by mid- to late summer, with construction slated to begin by late fall.

"The first thing in the morning, it's just beautiful out here," Hangen said of the sunrise over the bay. He and his crew have seen all kinds of sea life — sharks, stone crabs, oysters, snook and sheepshead — around the pier.

He said people often ask him when the work will be done. They have kept the bridge open for most of the construction, closing it briefly due to vandalism and opening it entirely for special occasions such as the loading of "pirates" into the Jose Gasparilla ship for February's parade.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661.

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