The state Department of Natural Resources has replaced a ferry ramp that collapsed on Sapelo Island’s Marsh Landing dock in October, killing seven people, along with its sister gangway on the mainland.
The replacement ramps opened Friday morning after a three-day installation process. The new gangway at Sapelo allows use of that landing’s main dock for the first time since the accident on Oct. 19, when an 80-foot-long aluminum ramp buckled in the middle and dumped 20 people visiting the island for a heritage celebration into fast-moving water.
The new gangways are 91 feet long, 8 feet wide and have a maximum weight of 52,000 pounds, or 260 people. Sapelo resident Maurice Bailey watched the installation of the Marsh Landing gangway and was one of its first users Friday morning. He described it as strong.
“They’ve beefed it up and put safety additions onto it,” Bailey said. “It’s very sturdy. It doesn’t move when you walk on it.”
The equipment is manufactured by a different contractor, CMI Limited Co. of Woodstock, than the builder of the failed gangway. Crescent Equipment Co., based 5 miles west of the mainland dock, built the ramp that collapsed. The ferry dock’s operator, the state Department of Natural Resources, didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
The agency said in a news release that the ramp at the mainland ferry dock, known as Meridian, was replaced as a precautionary measure.
Crescent Equipment has built some two dozen structures across the state for the DNR since 2015, records show, including a gangway that collapsed in 2022 in St. Marys, injuring 17 people.
The Sapelo gangway collapse remains under investigation. In addition to reviews by the DNR and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the state Attorney General’s office has contracted with an engineering firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, to conduct an independent examination.
The failed ramp was removed from the site two days after the accident. Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates representatives were seen at Sapelo’s Marsh Landing examining the gangway’s connection point a day later.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The seven victims in the collapse included Atlanta residents William Johnson Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76. All those who died were age 73 and older.
The deaths happened during the annual Sapelo Cultural Day celebration at the Marsh Landing Dock around 4:30 p.m. About 40 people were on the gangway waiting to load on a ferry when the ramp suffered a “catastrophic failure” and buckled in the center, according to officials.
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