The boat dock at Beale Street Landing has been moved temporarily to inside the downtown harbor due to low water.
“Beale Street Landing is still under construction,” said Dorchelle Spence, spokeswoman for the Riverfront Development Corporation. “One of the few remaining items from the original contract is completing the dredging underneath the docks. With the river at this very low level, it is an ideal time to do this work.”
Last week the dock was at the landing at the end of the cylindrical ramp. Normally, the American Queen steamboat would tie up there, as it did on its maiden voyage and christening earlier this year.
But low water at the site of the landing and entrance to the harbor forced the steamboat to dock instead at the north end of the Mud Island Greenbelt when it visited Memphis ten days ago.
This week the dock sits next to the historic Cobblestone Landing just south of one of the boats of the Memphis Queen Riverboats. The Riverfront Development Corporation is working with the U.S. Corps of Engineers to get the landing site and harbor entrance dredged so the dock can go back to where it is supposed to be, as shown in this RDC rendering.
The $40 million project is supposed to be finished later this year.
