Those involved in the shipping industry in Cyprus described the pier’s suspension as inevitable. “We know the weather, and we know the rhythm of the waves and the wind at any time of year, and we could have told it was not going to work,” Miki Peleg, general manager of EDT Offshore, a Cypriot cargo ship-owning company that, with Fogbow, was contracted by the U.S. military to remove the pier, via tugboats, back to Gaza’s shores…
*While the Pentagon has allotted enough money to pay for the pier to receive aid for three months, those familiar with its operations say they don’t expect it to last that long, at least not without multiple repairs. *
If the pier shuts down permanently, the aid could end up being delivered by sea to the Ashdod port in Israel, and then sent along the very land routes the maritime corridor was meant to bypass.
The news reported, a couple days ago, the pier had been repaired, and was back in use. But, it is clearly fragile and, possibly, more a PR exercise than anything else.
I’ve not spent time in the Med, but the Gaza coast is fully open to the sea.
“The project stops on bad weather days as rough seas slow down the ships while the pier is unusable in waves higher than 90cm (three feet) or winds faster than 24km/hour (15mph), according to a 2006 US Naval War College paper on safe cargo handling.”
When you create a wartime asset, like a portable pier, you need to use and test it rather than have it sit around for “when you might REALLY need it” because it is inherently a wasting asset.
We have learned a lot. I bet the successor tech is on the boards.
Earlier this month, the pier broke apart and sustained damage in heavy seas and had to be towed to Ashdod for repairs that took over a week. It was moved back to Gaza last week and resumed operations on Saturday but had to pause again due to heavy seas on Monday and Tuesday…
Officials have told CNN that sea conditions in the eastern Mediterranean will only worsen as fall and winter approach, raising questions about the pier’s realistic lifespan.
The pier was damaged by high winds and heavy seas on May 25, just a bit more than a week after it began operating, and was removed for repairs. It was reconnected on June 7, but removed again due to bad weather on June 14. It was put back days later, but heavy seas again forced its removal on June 28.
I have to admit I always thought the Med was more like a bathtub and didn’t have these kinds of sea conditions! I’m hoping this is at least a learning experience for the military.