The chronically failing shoreside dock at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center continues to prevent access to the revered battleship grave two weeks after a break was detected, and is the latest frustration for visitors and the network of museums that operate at Pearl Harbor.

“I am so disappointed,” Devery Harmon posted on the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Facebook page. “The main thing I wanted to do this trip to Oahu was to see the memorial.”

Daniell Hagan said, “Fingers crossed it’ll be fixed by next month.”

On Sept. 3 a “loud noise” was heard by the crew of a Navy white boat as it was docking at the visitor center shoreside dock, said National Park Service spokeswoman Emily Pruett. The boats take visitors to and from the memorial.

“Upon inspection, park staff found that the gangway connecting the shoreside dock and the park had slid and was in danger of falling into the water,” Pruett said in an email. The Navy said the boat did not damage the dock.

The National Park Service and Navy, which has been helping to try to fix the dock, determined that a steel collar that connects the dock to the metal gangway had been severed due to ongoing wake and tidal movement.

“A timeline for recommended repairs has yet to be determined,” Pruett said Friday.

Chuck Anthony, a spokesman for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, said “there are a number of possible courses of action that the Navy is going to be recommending, but at this point, they are all temporary fixes.”

The timing is bad for the shoreside dock to be down as another task while the park service plans for the 80th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.

The commemoration reportedly will be held on Kilo Pier at Pearl Harbor, which is not accessible to the general public. Lou Conter, one of just two remaining USS Arizona crew members, is not expected to attend due to health issues.

An interment of an Arizona crew member is planned, and the day after at Pearl Harbor, the new destroyer USS Daniel Inouye will be commissioned.

Asked about Kilo Pier plans for the Dec. 7 observance, Pruett said, “We are monitoring the coronavirus situation and will continue to assess the impacts to the 80th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day commemorative events,” with “everyone’s safety and the safety of our veterans” in mind.

Two docks actually comprise the shoreside boat embarkation point. The west dock, closer to the Arizona Memorial, has been out of service since late 2018 due to failed pilings driven into the seafloor.

The park service and Navy had been able to run the daily schedule of boat tours to the memorial from the east dock, closer to Kamehameha Highway, prior to its Sept. 3 closure.

The twin 90-foot floating concrete docks sank in late 2018 and were patched, and the east dock was temporarily out of commission again in 2019. A $4 million replacement was sought several years ago. Pruett said the park service has secured funding to replace the 1999 shoreside dock and its piling system, with a contract expected to soon be awarded. Completion is due in fiscal 2022.

“This current issue with the east shoreside dock (closer to Kamehameha Highway) will be fixed in the interim and will likely keep the boat operations continuing through the intervening time,” Pruett said.

COVID-19 resulted in no walk-on access to the Arizona Memorial for nearly four months in 2020. Walk- on access was stopped for 15 months from May 2018 to August 2019 when the anchoring system for the boat landing dock at the memorial itself failed — and the metal gangway for that dock also almost fell into the harbor.

A series of “helical” pilings were screwed into the seafloor, and synthetic rope was attached to anchor the floating concrete dock, as part of a $2.1 million fix.

All the memorial closures have not been good for Pacific Historic Parks, which helps at the Arizona Memorial visitor center, as well as the other nonprofits that operate in the Arizona Memorial’s orbit: the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. One official said the summer saw a visitation resurgence with tourists coming back.

“The closure of the Arizona Memorial impacts the visitor experience for the Battleship Missouri Memorial,” said battleship memorial President and CEO Michael Carr.

“Since the beginning of September, we’ve seen fluctuations in visitor counts to the Mighty Mo,” but pre-pandemic, September has typically been a slow month due to the end of summer and start of a new school year, Carr said.

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center — with two museums — and the neighboring museums remain open.