Long Beach is looking for museums, preservation groups and developers to inherit and preserve historic lifeboats from the Queen Mary, as the city continues repairs to open the legendary ship back to the public.
The city announced Friday, Feb. 25, that it’s seeking bids in hopes of the boats being preserved as a piece of history.
Long Beach began repairs on the iconic WWII-era ship in January. Such repairs — which would allow the ship to open sometime this year — will cost the city an estimated $5 million.
The city will use the $2.5 million the City Council granted last year to fund part of that cost. An additional funding request will go before the council later this year, the city said.
Removing the lifeboats and finding new homes for them is part of the repair process.
Construction company Exbon Development, Inc. has been contracted to remove deteriorated lifeboats from the Queen Mary. The lifeboats stress the side shell of the ship, the city previously said, which has created cracks in the support system.
Removing the deteriorated lifeboats make the ship more structurally sound. Two of the lifeboats will be kept to be preserved on the ship and 13 others will be removed and stored.
On Friday, the city allowed some organizations to walk around the Queen Mary site to view the lifeboats. The city will host another site walk on Friday, March 4.
Interested organizations must have experience in preserving historic relics and must show how they would plan to preserve the lifeboats, the city said. Organizations must submit their proposals through the city’s Request for Qualification Vendor Portal, PlanetBids. Proposals must be submitted by March 25.
City spokeswoman Jennifer De Prez said she could not share names of organizations that have already placed bids until the solicitation has closed; withholding such information ensures a fair bidding process, she said.
Removing the deteriorated lifeboats is just one of the repairs the city needs to make on the ailing Queen Mary. In total, Long Beach City Auditor Laura Doud said in a report, the ship needs an estimated $23 million in repairs. The $5 million in repairs the city is working on now would be just enough to reopen the ship to the public.
The city will also install new bilge pumps to discharge water in an emergency, and make other improvements to the bulkhead, the emergency generator and the water intrusion warning system. In January, the city also did work on the ship’s exhaust funnels, and electrical and lighting systems.
The repairs come now that the city has control over the Queen Mary for the first time in 40 years. In June, the ship’s previous operator, Urban Commons, surrendered its 66-year lease amid its ongoing bankruptcy.
Long Beach gave Urban Commons $23 million to repair the ship in late 2016. But two years later, 27 projects Urban Commons and the city had agreed were most urgent had not yet been finished, Doud said in her audit.
A marine survey from 2015, the year before Urban Commons took over the lease, found that the total cost of ship repairs could range from $235 million to $289 million.
In September, the city agreed to transfer control of the ship to the Harbor Department. Negotiations for that transfer are ongoing.
Source: Orange County Register
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