Ok folks you asked for it. So here it is, an up-to-date report of what is happening with the Sand Island Lighthouse, Mobile / Dauphin Island, AL

It is big news here in Mobile making it into the Mobile Press Register two days in a row, pictures included. I will retype here for you what the papers have to say. Tonight I will give you yesterday's paper and will try to get today's paper done sometime tomorrow.

Sorry I can't give you the exultant photos that are in the paper to go along with this report. Maybe when I get back from my weekend in St. Augustine / Orlando I can come back and add the photos to this post.


PRESS REGISTER
Mobile, AL
Tuesday, August 15,2006

SAND ISLAND LANDMARK

“PHOTO”


A long, vertical crack is visible above and below a window at the Sand Island Lighthouse in this photo from March. Engineers plan to visit the landmark on the tiny island at the mouth of Mobile Bay today to determine the feasibility of preserving the structure.

With drills for taking core samples, rappelling gear and helmets mounted with video cameras, a group of engineers studying the feasibility of preserving Sand Island Lighthouse plans to be all over the structure today.

“It's going to be something to see, these guys rappelling down the lighthouse looking at the cracks, other guys drilling to learn more about the foundation,” said Warren Lee of the Alabama Lighthouse Association.

A mobile engineering firm plans to start work today on a $62,500 study to determine the causes of the massive cracks in the lighthouse's brickwork in order to repair the structure and prevent future deterioration, Lee said.

Decades of erosion long ago left the lighthouse isolated, without an island surrounding it. Over the past five years, the local lighthouse group has worked to restore the lighthouse and make it a tourist site.

“Our dream is to have an island there again,” said Jack Granade, head of the Thompson Engineering project. “To have a ferry to take tourists to see Middle Bay Lighthouse, maybe have a meal there, then go out and dock at Sand Island, let them go to the top, and maybe have a shop where you could buy souvenirs.”

The town of Dauphin Island took possession of the lighthouse from the National Park Service in 2003. The town owns it in partnership with the Lighthouse Association, which is responsible for the restoration and maintenance of the tower, 4 miles southeast of Dauphin Island.

A group of safety experts visited the lighthouse in May, nine months after Hurricane Katrina, primarily to see whether stairs and walkways at the 131-foot-tall tower will collapse during future visits.

“That trip made us decide to use a barge, not a little boat, on our next trip,” Granade said. Today the group will travel on a 100-foot barge from Wayne Elrich of J&W marine out of Bayou La Batre, he said. On board will be a trackhoe with a boom to help the group transfer its equipment to the lighthouse, he said.

That group of experts is expected to include Michael Davison, a masonry consultant from Mississippi; John Walsh, a historic ironwork specialist; Lou Newlan, Thompson Engineering's own roofing consultant; and core drill consultant Arnie Hughes of Arnie Hughes Construction in Mobile, Granade said.

The project is funded by a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and $12,500 raised by the Alabama Lighthouse Association.

The association has estimated that restoring the structure at its current site would cost about $2 million.

Thanks for the report. Glad some progress is being made.

Engineers to begin inspecting lighthouse from Tuesday 8/15

Sand Island lighthouse study gets underway from Wednesday 8/16

Thanks Dave, you saved me a lot of typing!

Thanks for the update

Thanks for the info. That's one we have never seen.
Judy