Best Specialty Contracting: Builders Design Winter Home for Niagra Falls Tour Boats
In 2012, the Maid of the Mist Corp. lost its contract to operate on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. In order to secure a 30-year contract to give tours on the American side, the company had less than two years to build a storage and maintenance facility. If the project was not completed in time, a competing company would have acquired the contract.
Maid of the Mist invested $32 million in the former Schoellkopf Power Station site, which had not been utilized since its collapse into the gorge in 1956 and partial demolition in 1962.
The project’s main objective was to create a location along the bank of the Lower Niagara River where the 130-ton Maid of the Mist boats could be removed, stored and shielded from ice and flooding. To achieve this goal, the team devised a system in which they used a 96-ft-high Liebherr crane with a 220-ton capacity and 78-ft-long arm to remove the boats and place them on an elevated concrete pad out of the reach of ice and floodwaters. The storage area was structured to fit the pattern of removal and placement of the boats.
Roughly 25,000 tons of limestone and debris were moved to create the site for the 30,000-sq-ft dry dock area and a 2,500-sq-ft maintenance office.
The project also included the installation of a new elevator in the existing shaft that runs from the top of the gorge to the lower level.
Maid of the Mist Winter Storage and Maintenance Facility
Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Key Players
Owner/Developer Maid of the Mist Corp.
Lead Design Firm/Structural Engineer/Civil Engineer/MEP Engineer Parsons Brinckerhoff
General Contractor/Construction Manager LPCiminelli Inc.
