The ramp, which is south of Marianna on State Road 278, was closed in early April and a ramp construction crew of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission began work tearing out the old debilitated concrete ramp. The new ramp is 16-feet wide, has *pre-stress* concrete slabs, fabri-form erosion siding laid adjacent to the ramp and features a handicapped parking spot with a sidewalk leading to the ramp.
Jim Palmer, an engineer for the FWC who oversees boat ramp construction, said work on the 110-foot long renovated ramp cost approximately $45,000 and largely came from Sport Fish Restoration funds, an 11% excise tax levied on the sale of fishing tackle.
"The Peacock Bridge ramp is important to fishermen who use this stretch of the Chipola below Marianna," said Fred Cross, the FWC*s Northwest Region fisheries biologist.
"Trying to navigate the river from other access points can be difficult due to limestone rock ledges." He said bream fishermen often do quite well in this stretch of the river, and it's also one of the few places anglers can expect to catch a rare shoal bass, a subspecies of black bass.
Cross had thanks for the Jackson County Road and Bridge Department who provided grading and other road work at the ramp site. He said several state and local dignitaries have been invited to the ceremony and the public is as well.
