A permit to reconstruct Springmaid Pier was signed back in January. It appears work has started. The pier was damaged by Hurricane Matthew on October 8, 2016.
The original pier was 1,000 feet long, 36 feet wide with a 110 feet wide T-shaped pierhead. It was also made of wood.
Under the new permit the pier will still be 1,000 feet long, but only 24 feet wide with a 60 feet wide T-shaped pierhead. It’ll also use steel piles instead of timber. Piles are the posts that hold the pier up.
There are also special conditions the permit holder has to follow during reconstruction:
- The beach has to be monitored for nesting or hatching sea turtles each day if work occurs during the nesting season (May 1-October 31).
- If a nest is disturbed or a turtle is encountered, all work must stop and a DNR representative has to be contacted.
- Construction equipment must be stored to minimize impact on sea turtles.
- The permitee must hire people with sea turtle experience to patrol the beach at night if night-time construction happens
- measures must be taken to prevent oil, tar, trash, debris and other pollutants from entering the water or beach during construction
News13 checked with SC DNR. A site survey was performed before work started and there was no sea turtle activity at the time.