CAMDEN, N.J. - The countdown continues.
For teams of ironworkers, bricklayers, pile drivers, painters, air-conditioning technicians, pipe fitters, divers, and plain old volunteers, not much time remains to get the USS New Jersey ready if it is to open to the public sometime after Labor Day.
The work moved into high gear in recent weeks with the awarding of $5.4 million in contracts. Nearly half the money came from the Delaware River Port Authority as an advance on expected state funding.
Tropical Storm Barry in the Gulf of Mexico delayed a barge carrying four steel pilings for the battleship's mooring. It delayed a planned Sept. 2 public opening. Now, the warship is to be moved its new home Labor Day weekend.
The Home Port Alliance, the nonprofit group working to transform the battleship into a museum, will have spent about $20 million in public money getting to opening day.
About $11 million is for the New Jersey's pier, which will have an elevator and will be made of prefabricated concrete slabs and steel-sheathed pilings capable of withstanding a 100-year storm.
Two locations
Work is under way at two locations: the South Jersey Port Corp. Broadway Terminal in South Camden, where the ship has been docked for 11 months, and the waterfront behind the Tweeter Center, where the 887-foot dreadnought will be moored.
"It's going gangbusters," Thomas Seigenthaler said of the final preparations. Seigenthaler is a retired rear admiral and executive director of the Home Port Alliance.
Until recently, volunteers had done most of the work on the ship, giving about 80,000 hours to clean, paint and generally restore seven of the 20 decks.
Now, professionals from the MC Painting Corp. of Crum Lynne, Delaware County, are swarming over the sleek exterior, using aerial lifts known as high reaches and old-fashioned rigging to apply up to 1,500 gallons of haze-gray paint.
Robert McCory, the company's project manager, said that the firm had painted two Navy supply ships - the Detroit and the Seattle - but that the New Jersey was its first warship. The paint job should be done by Aug. 25, he said.
A commercial building
Inside the ship, workers from Delta T of Runnemede are installing $1 million heating and air-conditioning systems. An electric heating system is needed because the ship's four steam engines, which once warmed the vessel, cannot be fired.
"The ship is essentially being turned into a commercial building," said Walt Green, Delta T project manager.
Delta T also has a $414,000 contract to get the warship's sanitation facilities working and hooked to a sewer that will be installed at the pier.
Once it opens, general admission to the ship will be $10 for adults and $7 for children, seniors and veterans. The alliance also is developing an annual membership plan that is expected to cost $62, which is also the battleship's number.
