Bob Hall Pier rebuild faces delay; completion now expected in February<\/a><\/p>\nAlthough the pier was originally expected to be completed Jan. 7, weather delays and allowable work stoppages have pushed that timeline back, according to Nueces County officials overseeing the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the contract date with the original contractor was January 7,\u201d said Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney. \u201cBut in that contract, there are days that are allowed for weather, days for days that they can\u2019t work for reasons that are very valid, and so they\u2019ve applied for a lot of those days. So we\u2019re still waiting to get the final number on how far back from January 7 it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the delay, Chesney said construction is nearing completion and the pier appears close to reopening.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s getting really close and if you go out there and look, man it looks great,\u201d Chesney said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be awesome. And we\u2019re going to really look forward to doing something, I hope, in February. But I don\u2019t want to mislead people and tell them until I get a firm date from a contractor.\u201d<\/p>\n
That potential February reopening would coincide with Barefoot Mardi Gras, scheduled for Feb. 28, a major draw for Padre Island and the Coastal Bend. Local business leaders say reopening the pier in time for the festival, spring break and the summer season would provide a significant boost to tourism.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s just going to bring in a whole bunch of folks from Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend and also the surrounding regions,\u201d said Dan Herrington, vice president of the Padre Island Business Association. \u201cWe get folks from Austin, San Antonio, all over coming. Having that pier done at the same time is going to be phenomenal for all of those people visiting the parade, staying overnight and enjoying the Mardi Gras spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the pier itself could reopen as early as next month, officials say its accompanying restaurant will take considerably longer to complete. Chesney said construction on the restaurant is expected to begin soon, now that a contract has been awarded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat contractor is mobilizing,\u201d Chesney said. \u201cThey should start seeing construction sometime this month or next, and that should be finished, hopefully by the middle or end of this next year, if everything stays on track again. God forbid we have a storm or something happens like that, that can always slow you down. And when you\u2019re building on the coast, everything\u2019s expensive and everything\u2019s a little dicey, but we are moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chesney added that what restaurant ultimately occupies the space will be determined by the county\u2019s Coastal Parks Division, which has not yet solicited bids from restaurateurs or vendors.<\/p>\n
For now, island residents, anglers and business owners remain hopeful that one of the Coastal Bend\u2019s most beloved landmarks will soon return to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Hall Pier could reopen as soon as February, just in time for Barefoot Mardi Gras, after hurricane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-114920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}