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freetheriverpark
23 Posts |
 Posted - 03/18/2005 : 08:52:27
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Posted on Fri, Feb. 18, 2005
Schuylkill to get two new docks
Funded in part by the Penn Foundation, the docks will serve tour and excursion boats.
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Staff Writer
The William Penn Foundation has bestowed $2 million on the Schuylkill River Development Corp. to help construct boat docks at Chestnut Street and Bartram's Gardens, development officials said yesterday.
The two docks would serve excursion and tour boats on the Schuylkill, officials believe. Landings will eventually be supplemented by another planned dock at the Fairmount Water Works.
"In the long-term vision, the 20-30 year vision, you'd be able to take a boat from the Water Works all the way to Fort Mifflin and maybe to Penn's Landing," said Bill LeFevre, executive director of Bartram's Garden. "In the short term, Bartram's Garden would be the southern end of the trip."
Joseph R. Syrnick, chief executive officer of the development corporation, said the cost of building both docks would be about $1 million, with Bartram's and the city each contributing more than $100,000 to the project. The remainder of the William Penn money, he said, will be used largely for programs to draw residents and workers into Center City's new Schuylkill River Park on the east side of the river.
Design work has been completed for the 54-foot Bartram's dock, Syrnick said, and all permits are in hand. Designs are almost complete for the 45-foot Chestnut Street dock, but permits are pending. The docks must pass muster with the Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the Coast Guard.
One issue that will have an impact on the timing of construction will be the annual running of shad in the river. The fish complete their migration by the end of June, and Syrnick said it is likely that both the Bartram's Garden and Chestnut Street docks will be finished by the fall. Construction will be arranged to accommodate the running of the shad.
The proposed dock at the Water Works, which is being funded by the city, is not as far along, according to Fairmount Park officials.
Design work for that project has just begun and is expected to take between nine and 12 months, said Stephanie Craighead, the park's deputy director for planning. Difficult terrain plus tidal movements at the site present "a complicated engineering problem."
Once design work on the $1 million Water Works dock is completed, Craighead said, construction should probably proceed fairly quickly.
Bartram's already runs a handful of summer tour boats from its site to the Water Works and back, but the one-hour, round-trip journey makes no stops. (A schedule can be found at the garden's Web site, www.bartramsgarden.org.)
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Article on New Docks
