By Daniel Kramer
MANAGING EDITOR
GREEN BAY – During the Green Bay Common Council meeting on Dec. 6, the council approved the Parks Committee’s motion to remove the Porlier Pier, based on a September structural assessment report conducted by Menominee County, Michigan engineering company, Akro Engineering and Design.
The pier, originally built as a railroad structure nearly 150 years ago, was redesigned in 2005 for pedestrian use. It’s located where Porlier and Adams streets connect near the Fox River Trail.
According to the report, AKRO performed a detailed inspection to determine the structural integrity of the pier and the scope of repair work required.
The inspection included an evaluation of every timber pile, all main framing members, and inspection of decking and rail components.
The report stated that the entire pier is supported on 75 timber piles and that approximately 70% of those piles are no longer structurally sound.
“I think it was good for us to pump the breaks a little bit and understand what our options were,” Alderman Brian Johnson said. “I think the engineering report came back and really gave us some options and really put some context to what it would cost for us to deploy replacement. I think at this point, there really is no disagreement about the conclusion of the engineering study, as sad and unfortunate as it is, because obviously I would have loved to have found a way to preserve that pier in its current condition. But given the amount of money that it would take to fix it, I get it, it doesn’t make sense.”
Green Bay Parks Director Dan Ditscheite said that AKRO did not provide a cost to rebuild the bridge as is.
“Our consultant’s recommendation was that it was too cost prohibitive,” Ditscheite said. “And too challenging to try to repair what’s there. His recommendation was that the pier needs to be removed or it’s more cost effective for the city to remove the pier versus trying to repair it.”
Budgetary cost estimates provided by Akro were $145,000 to demolish the existing structure and remove the entire wood structure and supporting timber piles.
To replace the pier with a new structure that matched the current pier in character and size would cost $1.6 million which does not include the cost of demolishing the existing structure.
A new, smaller fishing pier could be built for approximately $630,000 which again does not include the cost of demolishing the existing pier.
Or finally, a small fishing platform could be constructed for $94,000, not counting the cost of demolishing the existing pier.
Alder Johnson then noted that there is a lot of other waterfront access along that strip.
“I think it would be short sighted of us to just say we’re going to take up the pier and eventually bring back a proposal to replace in kind or substitute without taking a look at how we create better water access for the public as a whole. And so, very simple. It’s just to move to amend this to direct Director Stechshulte as the executive director of redevelopment authority to inquire about possible actions of parcel 16-1-A, 15-168-B and 15-168-A and report as appropriate to a future redevelopment authority.”
Alderman Jesse Brunette said that Alderman Johnson’s motion was a good one.
“It’s a no brainer,” he said. “It allows us to continue the discussion about allowing residents in that area and visitors to access the water in that particular area. We have to start this discussion somewhere and it kind of reduces the sting a little bit of us voting to remove the pier and now residents I would assume are thinking ‘what now?’ You’re just going to remove it and do nothing and so I support the motion fully and it’s a difficult decision. Let’s be real. Removing that pier, that’s a big part of our history, but it’s not safe and we went through the process to determine as such and so we just need to keep this on our radar and this helps us accomplish that.”
The amendment was adopted unanimously.