Pier built in conjunction with new research vessel
New renovations planned for the URI Bay Campus. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark | Staff Photographer
The University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus will be getting some new renovations in a new research ship and dock.
The dock was funded by a $250,000 grant that R.I. Senator Jack Reed recently allocated from federal funding for URI, which will initiate a project with the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
“Senator Reed gave us $250,000 for what we call ‘shoreline protection’,” Paula Bontempi, dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, said. “That’s to make sure that there’ll be a study to see how we protect the sensitive ecosystems that are along the shoreline, that we maintain our pier line, and that when we build a new pier road, it is actually ecologically friendly and can withstand things like climate change.”
The pier will be coming along with a new research vessel, the Narragansett Dawn, a 200-foot ship that is being built for students and set to come to the University in 2023.
Previously named the Resolution, the name was changed to honor the Native American settlers of the land, according to Bontempi. The ship and pier, however, are being funded separately from Reed’s $250,000 grant .
“The road that goes down to it is subject to erosion to the south,” said David Palazzetti, director of Faculties and Operations at the Narragansett Bay Campus. ”There is concern that the road, the only access we have down to the new pier, will eventually become unusable.”
The ship is coming from a different, $125 million grant for the new vessel, according to Bontempi.
The ship will replace the previous vessel, the Endeavor, which has been in service since 1975.
“The Endeavor was designed for ocean work, but not necessarily for oceanographic research, so this, the Narragansett Dawn, is part of a three ship investment for global class and regional class vessels from the United States government,” Bontempi said.
The ship will have updated technology not available on the Endeavor. According to Bontempi, these updates have included things such as video, optical sensors, telepresence and other things not available on the more analog Endeavor.
The new pier, which is coming from phase one of the campus revitalization program of 40 million dollars, will also account for modern problems, such as sea level rise, according to Palazzetti.
“The current pier, any given storm like we had last week, is actually right at the water line, and sometimes it’s actually going under water,” Palazzetti said.
It will also be longer, as the current pier is not big enough for the new ship coming in.
The bond that funded the pier will also go towards other things on campus such as new buildings like the Ocean Robotics Laboratory, a building shared by GSO and Ocean Engineering Program. The building will be used for researching and designing undersea vehicles.
Bontempi says that the pier is a big investment from the state and school, and without it, it would not have been able to compete for the research vessel.
“I want to thank the state of Rhode Island and the University of Rhode Island for investing in us and we promise to roll that into more significant wins in research and development technology development as well as supporting the management needs we have in the state,” Bontempi said.