GRAND HAVEN, MI (WHTC) – A featured attraction of “Coast Guard City USA” won’t be accessible when the annual Coast Guard Festival comes to Grand Haven this summer.
Crews with the US Army Corps of Engineers notified city officials that the timetable for reopening the Grand Haven Pier to pedestrians, which includes having the city reinstall a catwalk to the iconic lighthouse at the tip of the pier, has been pushed back. Issues with the pier’s structure that have recently surfaced will mean that the rebuilding project won’t be complete until mid-October, forcing the city to wait until next spring before getting the catwalk back into place. The Festival is slated to run from July 28th through August 6th.
The extra work will tack on an additional 100 thousand dollars to the 3.2 million-dollar price tag for the pier rebuilding, with a fundraising effort for restoring the catwalk two-thirds of the way towards its million-dollar goal.
