GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Crews are expected to spend the next week carefully removing the iconic metal catwalk from the south pier in Grand Haven in preparation for a year-long construction project to renovate the crumbling concrete pier below.
The pier will be closed gradually as crews move toward land to remove the catwalk. Crews began removing sections of the catwalk on Monday.
The entire pier is expected to remain closed to visitors until at least the end of Aug. 2017 to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the concrete walkway, according to Pat McGinnis, Grand Haven's city manager.
"Anyone who has walked on it can see the surface is quite broken up," McGinnis said. "It really needs to be renovated."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is heading up the $2.7 million project to rebuild the pier. The project to restore the catwalk, which is owned by the city, will be funded through a crowdfunding effort being led by the Save the Catwalk campaign.
McGinnis estimates the cost to restore the corroded catwalk is roughly $500,000-700,000. Additionally, nearly $200,000 has already been raised to go toward covering the costs to remove and later return the catwalk to the pier once reconstruction is complete, he said.
“It's an historically significant asset that we want to keep intact," McGinnis said, estimating the pier is visited by at least 1.5 million people each year. "While this structure [the catwalk] is stored on dry land, we really want to do the restoration."
Photo taken on the south pier in Grand Haven shows as a wave sweeps a woman off her bicycle. (Photo by Bob Walma)
Bob Walma was among several people coming and going near the pier on Monday to watch the first segments of the catwalk lifted onto a freighter to be shipped inland. He says he visits the pier almost daily to take photographs.
"It’s just been here forever and it’s iconic and it’s just so strange to see them hoisting pieces of it up into the air," Walma said.
Walma, who is also a member of the Save the Catwalk committee, expressed confidence the money needed to restore the catwalk would be raised.
“All my photographer friends and I who take sunset photos all the time are wondering what it’s going to be like [with the catwalk removed]," he said. "It’s going to look like you pulled all the teeth out of the front of your mouth.”
McGinnis said he wouldn't be surprised if the pier maintained a steady stream of visitors even during the construction.
On the flip side, this is your only opportunity to see it under construction, to get a look at what’s underneath that concrete," he said. “Anybody now who can remember it is never going to see it torn up again; it’s the chance of a lifetime."
You can donate money online at the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation, and you can follow Save The Catwalk on Facebook for the latest on fundraising efforts.
