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City secures $15M state earmark to improve Berkeley Marina

Posted on August 10, 2022

The Berkeley Marina is slated to receive an influx of cash following a successful lobbying campaign for a $15 million earmark from the state.

In October, several Berkeley City Council members asked the state to consider a proposal to help address several critical needs in the waterfront, from replacing failing docks and pilings to dredging the main channel for better boat access.

At a recent council meeting, Berkeley officials said they were happy to report that their efforts had paid off: The state approved the full $15 million request as part of its 2022-23 budget.

Now, the city is working to determine exactly what to do with the money to get the most bang for the buck.

Berkeley parks director Scott Ferris told Berkeleyside the first thing to figure out is how much dredging work the city needs to do and how much that will cost.

He said that’s likely to be clearer in the next month or so.

“If it’s $4 million, great. If it’s $9 million, that’s a bigger problem,” Ferris said late last week. “It’s kind of a wait-and-see.”

The city says it needs to dredge the main harbor entrance as well as other hotspots to allow better access for boats, which now get stuck at times depending on the tide.

One challenge, Ferris said, is likely to be the 15% increase in construction costs the Bay Area has seen over the past year.

“Fifteen million dollars is an amazing amount of money,” Ferris said. “But it doesn’t get us where we would have gotten a year ago. A lot has yet to be determined.”

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