Surprise: Cost Estimate for Floating Gaza Pier Doubles

Leah Barkoukis reporting for Townhall 

The military’s cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza has nearly doubled from previous estimates. 

According to a new Reuters report, taxpayers will fork over approximately $320 million for the pier that will facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.  

"The cost has not just risen. It has exploded," Senator Roger Wicker, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters. "This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days." 

Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters the cost is a rough estimate for the project and includes the transportation of the equipment and pier sections from the United States to the coast of Gaza, as well as the construction and aid delivery operations. […]

U.S. and Israeli officials have said they hope to have the floating pier in place, the causeway attached to the shore and operations underway by early May. […]

Under the plan by the U.S. military, aid will be loaded onto commercial ships in Cyprus to sail to the floating platform now under construction off Gaza. The pallets will be loaded onto trucks, which will be loaded onto smaller ships that will travel to a metal, floating two-lane causeway. The 550-meter (1,800-foot) causeway will be attached to the shore by the Israeli Defense Forces. (Associated Press)

Lawmakers have also expressed concern that the pier, which has already been targeted, will turn U.S. service members into sitting ducks. 

"For every day this mission continues, the price tag goes up and so does the level of risk for the 1,000 deployed troops within range of Hamas' rockets," Wicker said. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday admitted it's "possible" U.S. troops on the pier get shot at, forcing them to return fire.