Cayce restoring boat landing on Congaree River

Cayce officials are preparing to rebuild a boat landing on the Congaree River destroyed in last fall’s flood.

Fishing and floating trip guides are happy that their long wait for the project is nearing an end.

“It’s way overdue,” said Kevin Geddings, owner of Adventure Carolina headquartered in the Lexington County city.

Until this reconstruction project, the most recent renovations to the landing were in 1993 by state natural resources officials to encourage outdoor recreation in the Midlands. It’s the only landing along the riverfront in the city of nearly 13,000 residents.

The 23-year-old landing off Old State Road was closed after its dock was damaged in floods that followed record rain in October.

Its loss created congestion at another landing on the Richland County side of the river, fishing and floating trip guide Jason Bennett of Irmo said.

“That makes things a little more inconvenient,” he said.

The closing also shortened float trips by three-fourths of a mile and required longer treks to return boats and equipment to his shop, Geddings said. “Not having it has been huge for us,” he said.

No one keeps count of landing use but city officials agree it is popular.

Repairs at the landing are estimated by city officials at $180,000, with three-quarters of that to be repaid by federal disaster aid.

It’s too soon to say when the repairs will be finished, city officials say.

The landing also benefits recreation on land as well as the river, officials say. Its parking lot is a gathering spot for bicyclists and hikers headed for nearby trails.

The site in the southeastern part of the city is officially known as the Thomas Newman Landing after a former Brookland-Cayce athletic coach, but is also often referred to as the Old Granby Landing.

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Cayce restoring boat landing on Congaree River."