OCEAN CITY – Although the construction of the new Ocean City Beach Patrol (OCBP) headquarters is running a few weeks behind, officials remain confident it will be ready by the start of summer.
The new Ocean City Beach Patrol Headquarters (OCBP HQ) broke ground in September and this week the third floor went up with roof trusses being set as of Wednesday. According to City Engineer Terry McGean, the goal is to have the roof up with weatherproof underlayment by the end of next week, which will make way for indoor work to begin.
“Once that happens, it will speed up work tremendously on the inside with not being weather dependent,” McGean said. “It is 80 percent done on the third floor framing while setting trusses.”
While construction will move indoors, work on the outside will continue with building porches and placing siding.
The project is on budget but running about three weeks behind on schedule due to weather and the masonry work taking longer than expected.
“We are looking to try to make up that time by working on Saturdays when the weather is acceptable,” McGean said.
The estimated completion date is now June 8, but with starting to work on weekends the hope is to move that date back to Memorial Day weekend.
The town agreed to hire a construction manager for this project to keep the task on schedule.
“It has been a much more collaborative process. It is less adversarial doing it this way,” McGean said. “They were immediately able to start working weekends. So far it has been for the better.”
The new three-story building is located at the corner of Talbot St. and South Philadelphia Ave., which is directly across the street from the former OCBP home.
Prior to project completion, demolition of what is referred to as the “model block” that falls between Somerset and Dorchester streets will begin on the Somerset Street side where the old Pioneer Hotel is located. The item is scheduled on the Mayor and City Council’s work session agenda next week to approve the RFP process for demolition.
“That, we will try to get down before the heat of the summer season, so that OCDC can generate parking revenue off of that site,” McGean said.
Once the new project is complete and the beach patrol has moved in, the demolition process of what will be the former headquarters and two apartments OCDC owns will begin.
“That will wait until after the season to come down because we don’t want to be doing demo work in the middle of the summer, and they are going to rent out those two apartments this summer,” McGean said.