COOS BAY — Built in 1963, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dock in Coos Bay, located at 1460 N Bayshore Drive, was due to start showing some signs of its age. Kate Groth, Coastal Project Manager for the Army Corps in Coos Bay, says that is exactly what happened when some old wood pilings broke apart last year.

She says the small dock, across the street from the Red Lion Inn, is used to support dredging operations in the summertime. The pilings, grouped together alongside the dock, are called “mooring dolphins.” Those pilings allow the Army Corps vessels, which are much larger than the dock, to tie up securely.

Along with the needed repairs, the Army Corps of Engineers was able to get other general maintenance work done on the dock for the first time since the 1980s.

So they reached agreement with W. W. Construction, a Newport-based general contractor, to tackle the $464,000 project. W.W. then turned to a Coos Bay company, one that specializes in marine work, to handle a chunk of work.

Ron Kutch, information technology manager for West Coast Contractors Inc. said they were contacted by the general contractor to handle certain parts of the project. As his crew was putting the finishing touches on their part of the project, Tuesday afternoon, he talked about why the work was needed.

“The Army Corps uses two hopper dredges that dock up here, Yaquina and Essayons,” Kutch said. “They are normally out during the summer time and they go out and dredge the channels, the rivers, and the bays, up and down the West Coast.”

Aside from the broken pilings, he said the dock was also starting to sag. Time was becoming an issue as well, if they wanted to get the project ready for the next dredging season, due to environmental restrictions.

“We have an in-water work period,” Kutch explained. “We have to be out of the water by a certain date because of migrating salmon and steelhead.”

WCC mobilized their 100-ton Kobelco CK1000 crane, along with an APE Model 200 vibratory hammer from American Piledriving Equipment onto a barge to perform their portion of the work. Which was completed in the shadow of the Coos Historical and Maritime Museum construction, just to the south.

The work, which earned WCC about $260,000, included removing broken wooden piling and performing repairs to a gangway. “The steel pilings are a lot stronger, they’re not affected by weather nearly as much, so those will be there a lot longer than you and I are going to be around,” Kutch said.

He added that they also lifted a portion of the dock to replace pile caps, while W.W. Construction was handling other necessary repairs and overall project supervision.

“We had five to eight guys out here working for over a week. It’s not a huge job, it’s not our biggest, but it’s really close to home and it had a short time-frame. So we got in, got it done, and now we are off to doing other things.”