95 MECHANIC STREET SEAWALL REPLACEMENT

Project Update -- Week of January 10, 2021

• Remove barge (delayed by snowstorm)
• Site cleanup and finalize temporary shutdown for winter

• ACK Marine started work on this project on August 23, 2021.

  The City DPW hosted a Public Information Meeting, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. For the presentation slides, click here.

  For a video recording of the meeting, click here.

  Background

  Following the collapse on August 4th of the 95 Mechanic Street Wharf, Portsmouth DPW brought in an emergency team to complete demolition of the buildings and to secure the site. A Pickering Marine barge and crane worked from the water while Renaud Industries deployed two excavators to take apart the buildings. The demolition work does not include the existing house.

  The City acquired the property in 2014 in anticipation of the need to replace the Mechanic Street pump station. That work is included in the FY23 & FY24 CIP. At the time of purchase, City engineers determined that the wharf and its c. 1949 buildings were beyond repair and not safe to enter. The buildings were cleaned out and a perimeter fence was installed.

  Before the collapse, City staff had been developing documents to request a construction bid to replace the wharf and seawall as first steps that needed to be completed before other future site improvements at 95 Mechanic Street and the public properties on either side. Staff had also secured the appropriate DES permits in anticipation of the demolition work. Because of the emergency demolition in August, the City will be requesting bids to include just the construction of the new wharf and deck and work on the sea wall.

  Public Information Meeting, October 3, 2019 
  The City held a public meeting on October 3 to update the neighborhood and other interested residents on the plans for rebuilding the seawall and reconstructing the wharf. The plan must be implemented in phases, because to keep the pumping station in operation, the new station must be built in an adjacent location. The meeting discussed opportunities presented by the reconfiguration of the site that might be included in the master plan for the property. 

  For more information, including the City’s historical documentation report on the building when it acquired the property, click here.

   

  Status: Project Awarded June 2021 to ACK Marine

  Project Manager: Raymond Pezzullo, P.E., Assistant City Engineer 603-766-1755

  Estimated Start Date: August 23, 2021

  Estimated Time of Completion: November 2021

  Estimated Cost: $1,165,000.

  Funding Source: City of Portsmouth

  Designer/Contractor: Tighe & Bond/ ACK Marine​