Squantum Point Pier in Quincy
to expand for ferry service
Final design and permitting work to renovate the Squantum Point Park Pier is scheduled to begin today, paving the way for expanded ferry service that officials say will boost tourism along the Massachusetts coast.
Officials including US Representative William Delahunt [pictured here, on right] and Lt. Governor Timothy Murray lauded the project at a groundbreaking ceremony at Marina Bay on Monday afternoon.
Initial plans include shortening the pier, adding new ramps, and relocating a weather shelter, allowing for ferries that could travel all the way to Cape Cod, officials said. It will also allow for a new fishing pier, boat ramps, and timber boardwalk, officials say.
“I can envision this location, this venue, as being a marine highway,” Delahunt said.
A final cost for the improvements was not provided, but the Seaport Advisory Council, a state body chaired by Murray and charged with developing the state’s “commercial maritime resources,” has appropriated $350,000 for the project.
Additional funding for the project is expected to come from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Division of Waterways, and the Massachusetts Cultural Coast, a non-profit organization.
The final planning phase will take two or three months, and construction, which could begin this fall or late winter, would require approximately the same amount of time, said Carlos G. Pena, vice-president at CLE Engineering who is supervising the project.
The pier, which officials said was built 20 years ago to ferry workers to the MWRA’s Deer Island Water Treatment plant, is now used mostly for recreational fishing and boating.
As a drizzle began and wind blew over the shovels for the groundbreaking and whipped a blueprint for the site right off its easel, representatives from cultural organizations all around the coast said they were optimistic about the idea of finding new ways to deliver visitors to their historical venues.
“We are excited about the possibility of getting visitors...to take this historic boat ride,” said Paula Peters, director of marketing for Plimoth Plantation. “It’s going to be incredible.”
Governor Deval Patrick hailed the development for the possible jobs it could develop.
“This project is an excellent example of the critical collaboration and investment that leads to both construction and jobs,” he said in a written statement.
On the pier itself, 87-year-old John Hause, who said he lives in Germantown, was sitting in a folding chair, holding a fishing rod, and listening to music from a nearby radio. Far from the crowd of about 35 assembled to listen to speeches, Hause said he comes to the spot to relax and fish, but thinks improved ferry service would be a convenient improvement.
“I’d be into that,” he said.
While officials say they hope to expand ferry service down the coast, they also hope to expand it within Boston Harbor– which brought out a romantic sentiment in Marianne Peak, superintendent of the Adams National Historic Park, who said that President John Adams used to court his wife, Abigail, on Rainsford Island.
“When you think of the value that the Adams placed on water transportation,” Peak said, “We’re really looking we’re really looking at a means of exploring our community.”
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