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Tacoma Urbanist

Dec. 7, 2007 at 12:31am

Exclusive: Balfour Dock Construction Tour With Tim Quigg

Today, I received a call from Tim Quigg offering a construction tour of Balfour Dock on the Thea Foss Waterway on Dock Street.

Donning a hard hat, I accepted.



Inside Balfour Dock.  Here is our old friend Tim Quigg who worked to try to acquire the Winthrop Hotel.  See Kevin's early morning blogging for more background on the Winthrop.  The 100 year old beams he is standing next to were acquired from an old Weyerhouser building.  The work on the Balfour dock is a repair and restoration task.

Here is some of the welding on the docks taking place to secure the new piling which are being pounded down.  Above is old growth seamless beams used in the construction of Balfour Dock. The old pilings have now all been removed, physically pulled out from the Foss Waterway.

Looking across the Thea Foss through Balfour Dock.  There will one day be a walkway in front of the dock on the pilings. 

The secret plans.  Here's how the interior of Balfour Dock will look when conpleted.  A boat shop.  A meeting room, classroom.  A "lumber story" and "canoe story" and the "Foss Company" story.  One of the best parts of the project will be the restoration of the esplanade in front of the building with public access.




comments [2]  |  posted under balfour dock, tacoma, tim quigg, washington
Comments

by KevinFreitas
on 12/7/2007 @ 6:49am		Thanks for the peek, Erik. The connection between the various ends of Dock Street will be great once this is ready to go. Are they going to be able to finish in time for Tall Ships this summer?

by Erik
on 12/7/2007 @ 11:41am		 Are they going to be able to finish in time for Tall Ships this summer?

I don't know if the whole complex will be.

However, they have put down a series of piers for it. To that they are going to attach some more docks.

With that said, I have not quite figured out all of the projects going on and how they work together. There are some surplus docks from Seattle tied up on th waterway as well.

The ulitmate goal is to have public access through a large walkway all around Thea Foss on both sides looping around from Johhnys Dock and then past the MOG. Foss Projects, Balfour Dock and way up to Point Ruston. That's why the expansion of the diesel burning ships is of a concerns as it would reduce the view for the walkway.
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A ongoing conversation to make Tacoma a better to live and work through better urban design.

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