New gas dock to fuel rest of Lynn boating season

LYNN – A small tugboat has nudged a large barge into place at Seaport Marina, signaling that work on the gas dock installation has begun after more than a year’s delay.”It’s a lot of lines. We wanted to get it right,” said Community Development Director James Marsh. “That meant a little extra engineering work.”Local boaters have had to gas up in Revere or Marblehead or find some other solution to their fuel needs since the gas dock was shut down for the season last year. City Council appropriated $500,000 of a $4 million bond to put in a brand new gas dock, but work only began on the project Monday.Despite the fact that boating season is half over, Marsh said he expects the dock will still get plenty of use this year.”It will be up and running in two weeks,” he said. “The season goes until October, so there is plenty of time.”The new gas dock almost caps a three-year project to restore the marina that had fallen in serious disrepair due to time and neglect – but not quite.The 160-slip marina underwent a $600,000 makeover in 2012 after the damage became so severe the city was forced to pink slip more than 100 boat owners who rented slips. B, C, D and E docks were all replaced.One year later, part of A dock, the slips closest to land, is still in need of repair/replacement as is the main gangway. Marsh said he is still waiting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make a decision regarding funding and the damage suffered by those particular slips.There is also the matter of the transient dockage that needs addressing as well.Just a year ago, the marina landed a $267,000 federal Boating Infrastructure Grant that will ultimately provide funding to create 12 slips for transient dockage. Marsh said there is plenty of time to get that work done.”We have three years to spend it, so we have two years left,” he said. “We’re still in the final engineering stages.”