Construction on Waveland’s Garfield Ladner Fishing Pier could begin in fall 2023

WAVELAND, Miss. (WLOX) - One of Waveland’s biggest tourist attractions is still in need of repair. Garfield Ladner Memorial Pier remains severely damaged after Hurricane Zeta slammed the Coast in 2020.

With spring and summer being the busiest season for Gulf Coast tourism, there’s a lot of pressure on the city to restore the pier. Frustrated residents have been questioning what’s holding up construction.

Mayor Jay Trapani said the city has been holding multiple meetings to discuss the ongoing delay, but there are a lot of steps involved and they are still awaiting money from FEMA.

“I want people to understand when FEMA obligates money, the city doesn’t actually have this money sitting in an account somewhere; it’s a reimbursable grant,” Trapani said.

The city requested $2 million from FEMA to repair the damage and has asked for an additional $1.8 million from FEMA to help build a pier that can withstand future storms. The mayor also said the city has yet to acquire an engineering firm to obtain a bid for the construction, which has caused yet another setback.

“We’re in the process right now,” he said. “We’ll be advertising in the local newspaper for the month of April. It’s a request for qualifications from engineering firms. From that, we’ll pick an engineering company to do the design work. The design work will take about 60 days. After that, it goes out for bid.”

The bid will be open for approximately 30 days and an additional 15 days before the bid becomes awarded.

“We can start the pier then and hopefully get it up and running as quick as we can,” Trapani said.

Trapani anticipates construction on the pier will start between September and October of 2023.

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