USS Arizona Memorial closes after loading dock sinks

HONOLULU – The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor will be closed for the rest of the week after the floating dock where visitors depart to the site became partially submerged, the National Park Service said.

Boat tours to the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Honolulu stopped Sunday after the 180-foot (55-meter) concrete dock dipped below the water overnight.

Repairs have been estimated to take a week, but the damage was still being assessed, park service spokesman Jay Blount said. “Right now it’s looking like as long as a week, give or take. But hopefully we’ll be back in operation as soon as possible,” Blount said.

Crews were working to pump out the dock’s chambers, but the cause of the damage was not yet known.

“If they’re able to patch the leak relatively quickly, we could be operational again in a matter of days,” Blount said. “We have no real way of knowing until we get people looking at it in the water.”

All memorial programs were cancelled through Saturday, but the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center remains open during regular operating hours. Other area sites also remain open, including the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, and the USS Battleship Missouri Memorial.