ANNA MARIA – The combined impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused the Anna Maria City Pier walkway to fail, according to an inspection report provided by the George F. Young engineering firm.
Mayor Mark Short shared this information during the March 13 city commission meeting after receiving the requested report the previous week.
Short said the engineering firm concluded that during Hurricane Helene, the waves and storm surge under the pier walkway pushed the walkway upward and stressed the walkway and the concrete pilings supporting it.
“That loosened everything up and when the winds of Milton came two weeks later, that was all that was needed to blow it down and knock it over,” Short told the commission. “It was a combination of the two. It got stressed from the surge pushing from the bottom up and the winds came from the top down and caused the failure.”
Based on our observations, it is assumed that the pier piles failed due to a combination of wind, waves, and storm surge during the hurricane. The intense wave action and storm surge may have scoured the seabed, reduced the embedment depth of the piles, and
compromised their stability. Additionally, the piles may have experienced excessive bending and shear stresses from wind-driven waves, potentially leading to structural buckling or displacement. The combination of these factors likely caused the piles to lose their loadbearing capacity, resulting in the progressive collapse of the remaining portions of the pier.
The 35-page report later provided by Short contains the following statement on page 7: “Based on our observations, it is assumed that the pier piles failed due to a combination of wind, waves and storm surge during the hurricane. The intense wave action and storm surge may have scoured the seabed, reduced the embedment depth of the piles and compromised their stability.
“Additionally, the piles may have experienced excessive bending and shear stresses from wind-driven waves, potentially leading to structural buckling or displacement. The combination of these factors likely caused the piles to lose their loadbearing capacity, resulting in the progressive collapse of the remaining portions of the pier,” the report says.
During the March 13 meeting, Short noted the hurricane-damaged walkway was built to different specifications than the T-end of the pier occupied by The City Pier Grill and the Mote Marine Science Education and Outreach Center.
Completed in 2020 after Hurricane Irma badly damaged the T-end buildings, the T-end decking and the wooden pier walkway in 2017, the T-end of the pier features a concrete foundation built atop solid concrete pilings and supported by concrete bents. The T-end of the pier and the pier buildings suffered minimal damage during Hurricanes Helene and Milton but the missing walkway leaves the end of the pier isolated with no pedestrian access.
For cost saving purposes, the pier walkway completed in 2020 was built to lower specifications using wooden bents, stringers and support beams placed atop spun cast concrete pilings that are hollow in the center.
Short said the next step is the demolition and removal of the remaining walkway to be replaced with a new walkway built to higher specifications using stronger materials. According to General Manager Dean Jones, the new walkway will feature solid concrete pilings. Solid concrete pilings are generally more expensive than spun cast concrete pilings.
Short said the project engineers are about 60% done with the engineering and design work for the new walkway and the demolition and removal of the remaining walkway is the next step. A request for proposals (RFP) will soon be issued seeking proposals from demolition contractors. The RFP is currently being reviewed for full compliance with state and federal regulations.
Short said a FEMA assessment team recently spent two days assessing the damage to the City Pier and is now processing the city’s claim seeking FEMA funds for the pier repairs.
“FEMA will come back to us with their estimate of how much they’re willing to pay to rebuild the walkway. It’s going to take a little time, but we need to know from FEMA what they’re willing to put in. We’re also working with the state and county but FEMA is extremely important in this process. It’s mission critical that we understand where the money’s going to come before we get too far down the path of rebuilding the pier,” Short said, noting he could not estimate how long the FEMA review process might take.
As an alternative or additional funding source for the pier repairs, the city recently requested up to $8 million of the $252.7 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant awarded to Manatee County by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Emotional plea
When offering public input, former Anna Maria Island resident and current Island realtor Linda Moore said her family moved to Anna Maria in 1969 and lived on the property now occupied by the North Shore Café.
“We lived here for 40 years. We loved the pier,” she said.
Moore said she helped get four benches installed on the old City Pier and when the new pier was built, four new benches were placed in the same locations. Three of those benches survived the recent hurricanes.
Moore said an old newspaper photo of her parents used to hang inside the bar at the Rod & Reel Pier that was also destroyed by the two hurricanes.
“As a realtor here for 21 years and a member of Roser Church for 50 years, I can tell you the City Pier is very vital to tourism and the memories of all of us that have been here – the newcomers and those of us who are second and third generation,” she said.
Moore said she visited the Mote Marine facility two days before Hurricane Helene struck. Getting emotional on the verge of tears, she said she’d help raise funds from the private sector if needed for the pending pier repairs.
“I want to be involved,” she said.
“I think we all feel the same sense of urgency,” Commissioner Charlie Salem said. “I know all of us are committed to get the pier back up and running as soon as we can.”
Salem expressed hope that constructing the new walkway with stronger materials will help it better withstand future hurricanes and storms.
North Shore Café owner Colleen Geller told Moore she could place a memorial bench for her parents at the café that now stands where Moore’s parents once lived.
