Palmer Station pier reconstruction milestone announced

The National Science Foundation will make a major upgrade to the pier (at lower right in the image) at the U.S. Antarctic Program’s Palmer Station, located on Anvers Island on the Antarctic Peninsula. NSF’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP) is currently in the process of finalizing the plans and designs needed to prepare for construction in the coming months.

“The Palmer pier project will be transformative,” said Stephanie Short, OPP’s section head for Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics (AIL). “Replacing the pier significantly advances the U.S. Antarctic Program’s goal to modernize our stations and ensure they can continue to support critical science research across the continent.”

The Palmer Station pier supports resupply operations for the station and berthing for the research vessels that operate around the peninsula and in the Southern Ocean. Maintaining a vigorous and robust science program at Palmer while rebuilding the pier is a priority.

“It is important that we identify opportunities to minimize negative impacts to ongoing science at Palmer Station while we implement this important upgrade, and we are working closely with AIL to do that,” said Alexandra Isern, acting head of OPP’s Antarctic Sciences Section.

Read more here on the Future USAP website: https://future.usap.gov/palmer-pier-upgrade/.