Removal of Center Lake pier began Wednesday.
Brian Loop, with Milestone Contractors, the company hired by the city to demolish and remove the pier, said they started moving in the equipment for the job on Wednesday. By Friday, that equipment was pulverizing the pier into removable concrete chunks.
“We put in a safety curtain around the pier to protect - to keep the dirt from going into the waterway when we do our excavation and removal. It kind of protects all the biologics and environment, etc.,” Loop said in explaining the pier-removal process. “And then we’ll remove the concrete top, dig out the sand and then starting pulling out the sheeting, work our way back in.”
Removal will start at the end of the pier and the small crew will work their way back toward the beach.
Loop said they’re supposed to be complete by around March 25, but he thought they’d be finished within the next five weeks.
The contract between the city and Milestone Contractors states work will be substantially completed within 120 calendar days from the day the contractor starts work on site but not substantially complete later than March 28, 2025, and completed and ready for final payment by May 16, 2025.
“A lot of what we’re doing, we’re using foundation equipment. We have to vibrate everything out. The sheet piling - some of them are up to 30 feet long - and are vibrated down into the ground. So there’s usually a third or a half in the ground, as much as what’s above the ground, so we have to vibrate that back out. We’ll stack them, and etc., and haul them away and get rid of them,” Loop said.
Milestone Contractors are bridge contractors and they normally build bridges, he said. “The sheet piling, we use a lot of that in our building process, so this is kind of our normal thing.”
The Center Lake pier removal isn’t the first time Milestone Contractors has removed a pier.
“I’ve been around for 28 years, so we’ve done a little bit of everything,” Loop stated.
He didn’t expect they’d encounter any surprises on the job.
“We found good documentation on how it was built, so it should be pretty straightforward,” Loop said.

    The orange safety curtain around the Center Lake pier keeps the dirt from going into the waterway while Milestone Contractors does their excavation and removal. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

There was a crew of five on the job site Friday. He said it was just a matter of taking it apart carefully, not getting hurt in the process, cleaning it up “and making it safe for the people when they come back to the beach. That’s the whole process right there. We want to make it look like we weren’t here when we’re done, and like it was never here.”
On Dec. 6, the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety awarded the bid and contract to Milestone Contractors for the project. The bid, which was received and opened at the board’s Nov. 15 meeting and was the sole bid received for the pier demolition, was for $397,838.
The city has an Indiana Department of Natural Resources permit to remove the pier, which expires April 1. With the DNR permit, there’s very specific restrictions and rules that have to be followed for the pier to be demolished.
To help pay for the pier removal, Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon found $250,000 in his budget under 2024 street repairs and maintenance to be used toward the project. Remaining funds will come from Redevelopment Commission improvements other than buildings ($73,919) and Redevelopment Allocation improvements other than buildings ($73,919).
The city already has engineering complete for two new piers to go into Center Lake, but is trying to figure out how to fund them, according to city engineer Aaron Ott at the December Board of Works meeting.
City Planner Justin Taylor said Friday, “I think that as a community we’re really excited to see that portion of the Center Lake Recreation Trail project come to fruition. Removing the pier was always part of that project.”
Hopefully, he said, the next step in the project will be the installation of the two new piers - one by the plaza and one to the north - but due to those costs that step may take a little longer to become a reality.
“The installation of the two piers was always part of the process,” he said.
The need to remove the concrete pier comes down to two ongoing reasons: E. coli and safety.