Beaufort leaders got creative, ensuring iconic festival will have shrimp boats on display
One long-held truth about the Lowcountry: A shrimp festival isn’t complete without shrimp boats.
Cruise ships still can’t tie up at Beaufort’s famed Waterfront Park seawall because of severe deterioration in the support structures below the waterline. As city leaders plan to solve that challenge, a more immediate one is right around the corner in early October..
The shrimp festival that celebrates the local aquaculture and community of watermen and women in Beaufort needed to proudly display the vessels that have become iconic on the horizon.
Late Wednesday, the city announced that O’Quinn Marine would be installing eight pilings, set 6 inches from the seawall and spanning 150 feet. These pilings will allow shrimp boats to once again tie up during the city’s Shrimp Festival on Oct. 4-5 — and other festivals. The city says the shrimp boats, with the pilings in place, won’t put undue stress on the relieving platform that undergirds waterfront park.
The city views the pilings, which were scheduled to be installed on Thursday (Sept. 19), as a temporary solution to allow the boats to be at the festivals as they have in the past, but also emphasized that the pilings will not be used by cruise ships.
“I made the decision to go ahead,” City Manager Scott Marshall said Thursday. “To me it’s a small price to pay to preserve some of the character of the city of Beaufort.”
The festival shows the character and history of the region
The Shrimp Festival is one of the city’s premier events attracting thousands of residents and visitors to the Beaufort River park to eat shrimp and watch the many ways in which it can be prepared. Part of the charm is seeing shrimp boats that supply the seafood parked in the Beaufort River along the promenade.
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But their presence this year was complicated by the problems that have been discovered below the seawall and the attached support structure known as the relieving platform at the park.
At the advice of engineers, and to avert possible further damage, the city previously stopped allowing cruise ships from docking at the waterfront.
Before moving ahead with installing the temporary pilings for the shrimp boats, the city checked with McSweeney Engineers, LLC, Marshall said. The pilings will prevent the boats from rubbing against the seawall and will not cause additional harm to the structure problems with the relieving platform, he said.
The cost of the work is $14,800. But two local shrimp companies — Sea Eagle Market and Gay Fish Co. — are contributing $3,700, Marshall said.
On April 18, McSweeney Engineers, LLC completed an above- and below- water investigation of the eastern waterfront structures and western seawall at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park.
The eastern waterfront structures consist of the 1,200-foot-long concrete seawall and relieving platform. The relieving platform is in front of and connected to the seawall and 570 concrete pilings support it.
Of the 570 total pilings supporting the structure, 227 were accessible during the inspection. The rest were not accessible because of sediment build-up. Of the 227, seven pilings were broken beyond repair and 46 had moderate to major deterioration.
Most significantly, the report found, in isolated locations, deterioration had led to exposure of the internal reinforcing steel. “These conditions result in an overall loss of structural capacity in comparison with as built conditions,” the report said.
“It suffices to say that the foundation supporting the Relieving Platform has reached the end of its service life,” the report adds.
From January 2018 to June 2022, the city spent over $1 million repairing 47 damaged pilings and paid another $91,492 to McSweeney Engineering, which conducts the inspections, according to city contracts.
The problem worries downtown business owners who rely on tourist traffic from the park and city officials and residents concerned about the cost to fix it.
City Manager Scott Marshall has said previously that a long-term fix for a problem could possibly be as high as $100 million.
In August, the city requested proposals from contractors to address the long-term structural problems. City officials are now evaluating the bids, Marshall said.
This story was originally published September 19, 2024 at 12:44 PM.
