Renovations underway at Jennette’s Pier

The closed-off end of Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head is seen the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)

By Corinne Saunders

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NAGS HEAD — The very end of Jennette’s Pier, located at 7223 South Virginia Dare Trail in Nags Head, is currently closed to visitors as the first of two planned offseason renovation projects is underway.

A larger platform for observation equipment is being constructed at the pier’s end. Following the completion of that project, all the wooden pier deck boards will be replaced with more durable, fiber-reinforced polymer planks, according to a Dec. 2 press release from Jennette’s Pier.

Thursday afternoon, most of the 1,000-foot-long pier was accessible. Wooden barricades with yellow caution tape blocked access to just the end of the pier, where new wooden support beams could be seen on top of the roof of the easternmost small structure on the pier.

The closure of “the outright end of the pier, past the widening flare” was slated to begin Monday, Dec. 8, while a construction crew replaces the small rooftop observation platform on the research station with a much larger one, according to the pier’s press release.

“It will allow the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) to install more and larger observation equipment,” Pier Director Mike Remige said in the release.

A rendering of the completed new rooftop observation platform, with the perspective from the west. (Image courtesy Jennette’s Pier)

Jennette’s Pier, state-owned since 2007 and reopened in 2011 after being completely rebuilt, is part of the North Carolina Aquariums Division, a member of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The pier is partnered with CSI and East Carolina University in ocean energy research and more, according to the release.

“The small widow’s watch supports the WeatherFlow meteorological instruments, including an anemometer that tracks wind direction and speed,” the release said. “Additional equipment records and shares data on humidity, temperature and barometric pressure.”

This real-time weather information is displayed on a monitor inside the pier house and online on the pier’s “Current Conditions” webpage, ncaquariums.com/current-conditions.

Monday morning, this webpage showed that progress had been made since Thursday. The Surfline camera showed many more beams are now on top of the structure.

The end of Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head is seen the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Screenshot of Surfline’s livestream on ncaquariums.com/current-conditions)

Once the platform is completed at the end of January 2026, the plank-replacing project begins, which will require the closure of large sections of the pier, according to the press release.

Each deck plank will be replaced with “a more durable, longer-lasting fiber-reinforced

polymer,” also called “FRP” plank, which is designed to better withstand the coastal environment, Remige said in the release.

An October press release announcing the planned re-planking project noted that many of the wooden planks are beginning to deteriorate and rot because of exposure to the elements.

The end of the pier will be closed through the winter and into the spring, according to the recent release.

The re-planking project will take place in a westward direction, moving toward the pier house, to leave the pier open for fishing, sightseeing and bird- or whale-watching for as long as possible, the release said.

“There will be a brief time, however, when there is no access to the pier and that’s why the project is set for the offseason,” according to the release.

Mike Remige, Jennette’s Pier director, holds a sample of the composite decking that will replace the wooden deck boards in early 2026. (Photo courtesy Jennette’s Pier)

Working westward from the end of the pier limits traffic on the brand-new reinforced composite decking until it has passed state inspection, Remige said in the release.

“It’s hoped that the entire pier will be completed in May just in time for the spring fishing season,” the release said.

As part of the re-planking, the fish tile donor plaques that have been embedded in the pier decking for nearly 15 years will be removed and relocated.

“While they will no longer be part of the replacement decking, the messages will live on,” Remige said in an Oct. 27 press release about the planned renovation. “Each inscription will be preserved on new weather-resistant signage, to be permanently displayed on the exterior of the pier house and shade structures on the pier.”

No recent releases have discussed a timeline for replacing the blades of the pier’s three turbines, none of which have had functioning blades in recent years. An Oklahoma-based company that makes the blade technology hit delays in certification, Outer Banks Insider reported in October.

Jennette’s Pier is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the end of March.

For more information, visit www.jennettespier.net or call 252-255-1501.

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