New St. Pete Pier designs being 'refined'

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Construction to rebuild St. Petersburg’s iconic Pier is about to get underway.  Officials say they’re hoping for work to begin in March or April.

Structural problems forced the Pier to close in 2014.  As several architectural teams draft a new pier, demolition of the old one wrapped up last month.

Schematics for the new design are almost complete.

Kristin Brett is in charge of marketing for the project.   She says crews are slightly behind on designs for the stretch of land leading up to the new pier known as the Approach.

Altogether it's a $70-million project; Brett says design teams are still working out some kinks.

"For example, we would like a more robust splash pad with some additional features but we may not have that,” Brett said.   “We are going to have a splash pad.. but how big and how many jets?  That's an example of just the types of things that are being refined.”

Artist renderings and timeline for the project can be seen at www.newstpetepier.com