Reconstruction to begin on Ken Combs Pier in Gulfport

On Tuesday the Gulfport City Council voted to approve a contract with Gulfbreeze Construction to replace Ken Combs Pier.

 The pier has been closed since it took significant damage  when Hurricane Zeta made landfall in 2020.  For several years the city of Gulfport has been working towards restoring Ken combs pier but disagreements with FEMA over how much construction should cost have slowed the process.

It was initially expected that FEMA and MEMA would cover 95% of the construction cost, with the city only paying 5 percent. However with disagreements still lingering over the project costs , Gulfport has elected to move forward with reconstruction of the pier, but will still continue to seek support from FEMA.

Construction is expected to begin within the next few months, and the pier is estimated to be open to the public sometime in the fall next year.

The piers in Gulfport aren’t the only structures still needing to recover from the effects of Zeta. For quite some time, Long Beach has been going back and forth with FEMA over cost to repair and harden its harbor, which was heavily damaged from Zeta. They entered arbitration in November and are expecting to hear a determination from FEMA in February of next year.

The city of Biloxi is also currently waiting to hear back from FEMA on repairs and upgrades for their Lighthouse pier, which was also damaged in Hurricane Zeta.

The city has been communicating with FEMA; the city has not raised any funds its self; because of FEMA‘s latest determination of eligible cost, Biloxi also has an appeal in with FEMA; FEMA does not require a structure to be redone exactly as it was before in order to receive funding. It requires the as was repairs accurately costed in order to evaluate how much of the mitigation cost will be eligible to build back stronger and better.

Also, the city has had its bid plans and specs in place and provided to FEMA.