Center for Wooden Boats moves to make way for upgrade
Feb 8 2011 in Currents by Deborah Bach
The boats and docks at the Center for Wooden Boats were moved to make way for a barge and crane. Photos by Dan Leach
If you pass by the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle this week, you may see a strange sight: a boating center with no boats, or docks, for that matter.
About three dozen boats — along with the center’s floating boathouse and boatshop, plus its various livery and water taxi buildings and attached floats — were moved to make way for a 140-foot barge with a crane that will pull out the old creosote-soaked pilings on the site and replace them with new ones.
The work is part of a major upgrade to the center’s waterway that is intended to protect water quality in Lake Union and better integrate the center into the new South Lake Union Park.
The project includes installing a new gangway that will connect CWB to the park and line up with a bridge that connects the park to Westlake Avenue. When visitors walk across the new gangway, the boathouse will be on the left and the boatshop on the right.
A new ramp at the south entrance is part of the CWB upgrade.
Both buildings are being moved farther away from shore, which will allow more sunlight to reach wildlife near the shore, and a special gravel mix is being added along the shoreline to improve juvenile salmon habitat.
New floats are being installed, along with new steel pilings that will provide more stability for the boathouse and boatshop. A new, wider ramp is being installed at the south end of the center to replace the existing old ramp. And utilities are being upgraded to help reduce service interruptions caused by frozen pipes.
The project, which will cost upward of $600,000, is being funded through private donations, government funding and in-kind contributions from the six companies doing the work.
The work started on Sunday, when about 30 volunteers came out to help move boats to other areas of the lake. The barge is scheduled to arrive Tuesday, and Davis said the center will likely reopen early next week.
In the meantime, CWB staffers are setting up shop in donated office space at nearby Chandler’s Cove. The boathouse is closed during construction, but sailing lessons are going ahead as planned and the parking lot south of the center won’t be affected.
CWB Executive Director Betsy Davis said the renovation will increase the center’s visibility and provide better environmental protection.
“We’re reanchoring our home in South Lake Union,” she said. “It’s very exciting. Things are just going to look better and be more secure and be more environmentally friendly.”
David Evans said on February 15, 2011
The old CWB had a vey quaint feeling with the older wooden docks, but this change is clearly better for the enviornment and is undoubtedly safer for all people and animals.