USS Arizona repairs are complicated, but harbor tours remain

For the past several weeks, Navy launches have taken visitors out to the USS Arizona Memorial — and slowly motored past without the usual docking, instead providing a 15-minute narrated tour of Battleship Row.

On Wednesday one of the Navy boats, with more than 140 people, traveled up alongside the adjacent Battleship Missouri Memorial, turned around and headed back past the sunken and rusted battleship at a distance of a couple hundred feet.

Since May 10 none of the thousands of people who show up daily to see one of the most revered spots in American battle history have been able to disembark on the walkway memorial that straddles the grave for over 900 men who gave their lives on Dec. 7, 1941.

A total of 4,300 tickets are available daily for the boat trip to the memorial, and all are snapped up.

It’s not clear when walk-on memorial access will return.

The National Park Service, which runs the memorial, said it is working as fast as it can to reopen access after superficial cracks were discovered in the memorial’s concrete near the metal access ramp.

Those turned out to be minor. The Arizona Memorial is structurally sound, said spokesman Jay Blount.

But the 105-foot floating concrete pier that serves as a landing had shifted nearly 3 feet away from the memorial, pulling on the ramp enough to shear off an attachment bolt on the memorial, officials said.

The 18- to 42-inch overlap that allowed the ramp’s other end to slide back and forth as the floating dock rose and fell with the tides had shrunk to just 4 inches, said Jacqueline Ashwell, superintendent for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial.

“We realized the bridge (was) probably about to fall in the water,” Ashwell said.

As the park service works to correct what could be a complex problem — a floating crane had to be brought in last week just to remove the 4-ton, 30-foot bridge — it’s also battling some misconceptions that the Arizona Memorial is inaccessible and the visitor center is closed for the repairs.

Officials continue to try to reassure would-be visitors that USS Arizona programs are continuing.

“We want people to come out and enjoy themselves,” Blount said. “The only thing different is that visitors are given a narrated harbor tour of Battleship Row instead of disembarking at the USS Arizona Memorial. People can still learn more about Pearl Harbor, World War II in the Pacific and pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed.”

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, museums and bookstore are open as usual. In the summer, visitation can rise to 7,000 daily, Blount said.

“This (mooring dock fix) is our No. 1 priority,” Blount said. “Our superintendent and our chief of maintenance are working with the U.S. Navy to try to use any resources they have.”

Vernon Mawbey, 55, and his wife, Jo, 52, visiting from Australia, said Wednesday that a concierge at their hotel told them the boats would come close to the memorial. The Arizona Memorial was one of their highest priorities for their visit to Hawaii.

“It was a bit disappointing when we got out there, because we didn’t get anywhere near to sort of see anything,” Jo Mawbey said.

Paula Hunter, 57, visiting from Idaho with her family, including two 13-year-old daughters, went to the site Thursday.

“That they’re still offering the tour is good,” Hunter said, adding that her daughters got to see the Arizona Memorial. “That was great, although years ago when I was able to go, we were actually on the memorial. Big difference. The feeling is completely different.”

But Elizabeth Pate said on Facebook that the narrated tour, which can be prerecorded or in person, “was perfect” because it was given by a man who witnessed the attack as a boy.

Officials don’t know why the floating pier, held in place by six chains and concrete blocks sitting in the mud of 40-foot-deep Pearl Harbor, has shifted.

Ashwell said last year’s king tides might have had an impact.

“It could be that those were significant enough to pull our anchors out of position. We don’t know,” she said.

An engineering firm was contracted Tuesday, she said. Divers are expected to go into the water this week to examine the pier’s anchors and chains.

Ashwell said it may be an easy fix, but she believes it’s probably something more complex that’s complicated even more by the anchoring system’s proximity to the USS Arizona.

“Some of the solutions may involve the need to do new environmental compliance,” she said. “It’s not like you dig a big anchor into the ground. You’ve got an archaeological site right next to it that’s got the remains of over 900 men and the possibility of unexploded ordnance.”

As a result, no timeline or cost estimate is available for a fix, Ashwell said. The cracks found on the Arizona Memorial are superficial, Blount said.

In 2015 the stern of the 894-foot hospital ship USNS Mercy clipped the memorial’s dock and damaged it. Officials have ruled that out as a possible cause of the new problem because the dock and anchoring system were replaced in 2016 — and now are six months out of warranty.