Coquina North Boat Ramp on Anna Maria Island set to be rebuilt

MANATEE -- West Bradenton residents Mickey McNeish and Bruce and Sharon Burris were using the Coquina South Boat Ramp to bring a boat in for repair Thursday morning.

Up until the Coquina North Boat Ramp closed earlier this year as a safety precaution, they would use the boat ramp a little farther north on Gulf Drive.

"This one is pretty crowded most of the time," McNeish said of the Coquina South Boat Ramp. "That one is never crowded. Sometimes we have to wait, but not very often."

As work continues on Manatee County boat ramps in 2016, the closed Coquina North Boat Ramp is the next in line.

The ramp, 2652 Gulf Drive, Bradenton Beach, was closed in February . Work should begin in 2016, according to Alan Lai Hipp, environmental program manager with the Parks and Natural Resources Department.

"It's definitely next in line to get the renovations and get that expanded," Lai Hipp said. "We will only close one at a time."

When Coquina North Boat Ramp is completed, it will be usable for larger vessels, Lai Hipp said.

"It will add a capacity that wasn't there before and take some pressure of use off Coquina South," he said.

The ramp infrastructure has mostly stayed the same since constructed in the late 1950s or early 1960s, Lai Hipp said.

"We had to close for public safety concern and the condition of the infrastructure there," he said.

Since the boat ramp was scheduled for other repairs, Lai Hipp said they "didn't want to put any money into significant repairs that would just be a Band-Aid."

The county is still waiting on a required U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit and also have to enter into a Florida Department of Transportation lease agreement since part of the parking lot is in state right of way, Lai Hipp said.

The project, estimated to cost $1 million, can begin once the permits are acquired.

"It could take upward of four to six months," Lai Hipp said of project completion. "It is a complete redo. There will be no part of the old dock, seawalls and ramp that remain."

Once Coquina North Boat Ramp reopens, Kingfish Boat Ramp, 752 Manatee Ave., Holmes Beach, will be the next ramp for the county to complete, Lai Hipp said.

The estimated $1.7 million project at Kingfish will include replacing wooden docks and seawalls, repairing the launch ramp and expanding it from three to four lanes and resurfacing the parking lot.

Lai Hipp said once the project does go out to bid in 18 months to two years, construction costs could change.

Coquina South Boat Ramp is the final boat ramp in the county queue, Lai Hipp said.

Lai Hipp said they don't want to phase the project. They want to address all the upland and waterside improvements at the same time.

"It doesn't have the pressing needs that the other ramps have," he said.

The Coquina South Boat Ramp will transition into becoming "a true boat ramp facility," county staff told commissioners in August.

Proposed actions to expand the boat ramp launch and parking capacity, and redefine its use as a boat ramp, include:

Relocating barbecue grills and pavilion to the Gulf side of Coquina Beach.

Adding parking barriers to keep vehicles off dunes and landscaped areas.

Extending the no-entry zone on the Gulf side to the bay side.

There is no timetable for when Coquina South will be rebuilt.

Bruce Burris, who lives in Mt. Vernon condos, said the Coquina South Boat Ramp is "really the closest one to us."

"It would be nice if they had gravel instead of dirt in the parking lot," he said.

Lai Hipp said the goal is to do all of boat ramps like Warner's Bayou, which was completed in May.

"When you are going in and looking at wholesale renovations and updating something that hasn't been updated in decades, do it in a way that you don't have to come back and deal with constant maintenance issues for decades," Lai Hipp said. "Warner's Bayou is a shining example of what we tried to accomplish in what we want all boat ramps to be like in terms of design."

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Coquina North Boat Ramp on Anna Maria Island set to be rebuilt."