An out of service sign at the Hunters Point South Ferry landing. (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
Aug. 30, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
The Hunters Point South ferry landing has been out of service for essentially all of August, with no telling when it will reopen.
The stop, just off LIC Landing, has been closed since Aug. 16 for repairs brought on by a medley of problems. Prior to that, the landing was closed from around the beginning of the month to Aug. 14 for other issues.
The Economic Development Corporation, the agency that oversees NYC Ferry, told the LIC Post that the landing will remain out of service until all necessary repairs are complete.
The agency said they do not have an estimated timeline for when the landing will reopen, and expect to receive more information on the repair work from marine surveyors this week.
The EDC did not respond when asked again for an approximate time frame of when the landing will be back up.
The repair work this time involves reballasting the barge, along with other structural repairs, and comes after a tidal shift (and extremely low tides) on the East River caused the barge to stick onto the landing’s piles, the EDC said.
The prior repairs earlier this month came about after an inspection revealed a deficiency on the gangway, which the EDC has replaced.
While the Hunters Point South landing has been closed, service has remained intact, as the EDC has redirected the East River route to the nearby Long Island City ferry landing by the Pepsi Cola sign.
The landing’s issues also come as NYC Ferry launched a new route connecting Long Island City to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who has been briefed on the landing’s near month-long closure, said he expects the EDC to restore service as soon as possible.
“The safety of my constituents is priority number one,” he said.
The Hunters Point South Landing is one of the oldest in the system, and was part of the prior East River ferry system.
The EDC said it is ultimately working to replace the landing entirely within a few years.
The Hunters Point South ferry landing today. (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
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5 Comments
The original structure was flimsy, and ill placed. It’s placement was at the original “end” of the NYC Parks land; now is situatedt less than half-way, and extraneous. Since it was next to the Coffeed concession, and the original parking lot, the Agency perhaps needed a reassuring landing for the smaller original ferries, close to the original buildings. Departing ferries are required to sound loud horn triplet blasts that echoed against the high school and residential buildings. The new larger ferry structure, sturdier and in deeper water, can handle increased traffic. Let the old NYC Parks landing be towed away to a deeper spot.
This is not what happened as I watched it all unfold. What happened was they took a very heavy steal walkway and replaced it with light aluminum. This affected the balance because the other end of the barge was weighed down to the exact weight of the steal walkway. When they removed the steal walkway, the other end went right down, crashing into the pilings. There was no tidal change that did this, I can not believe they would even consider using this excuse. And for weeks now, no one there is working. They have also stopped bus service to the other ferry. The thing is 15 years old, needs to be replaced so do not expect a ferry for a very long time, unless they just do shoddy repairs.
Tides? Climate change was a hoax invented by DumBlasio.
why is this only coming out now – very strange.
What is a “tidal shift” and how does it impact a floating landing?
Why does everyone keep repeating “tidal shift” without understanding what it means? Hint: it doesn’t mean anything.
Have you noticed that none of the commercial piers along the river (handling fuel, sand, gravel, asphalt, cement, scrap, sludge, trash, recycling, etc.) have been affected by a “tidal shift”?
I’m a big fan of the ferry, but this reeks of incompetent engineering and incompetent PR. The city’s silence on the issue is deafening.