ST. THOMAS - The St. Thomas Coastal Zone Management Committee approved two modifications Tuesday needed for the Crown Bay dock to accept Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas on its maiden call Dec. 8.

The brand new megaship will dock every other Tuesday at Monsanto Marine Terminal in Crown Bay for the next year while St. Thomas Harbor is dredged. The solution is a temporary one: the Oasis of the Seas will dock at the West Indian Co. facility once the dredging permits are finalized and the work completed.

On Tuesday, the St. Thomas CZM Committee unanimously approved - with no questions from members - the modification request made by the V.I. Port Authority. The Port Authority owns the Crown Bay facility and has been working in partnership with WICO for more than a year to get the harbor dredged in order to welcome the largest cruise ship in the world to the Virgin Islands.

The modification was made to the original major CZM permit - issued July 25, 2002 - to dredge the channel and expand the existing pier at Crown Bay to create Monsanto Marine Terminal. The two elements included in Tuesday's modification are the installation of a 175-ton bollard and a 2,000 square foot temporary modular building.

The bollard will allow the cruise ship an additional anchor to tie up to, mostly to prevent the huge boat from being pushed away from the dock by a strong wind. The bollard, which will cost the Port Authority about $250,000, will be placed on the western end of the pier. It is a steel post that will be anchored in the concrete dock by vertical steel rods attached underground to two embedded, horizontal 61-foot tie rods that run the length of the dock in each direction.

"The whole dock will act as the counterweight for it," Dale Gregory, Port Authority director of engineering, said.

The temporary building will house the ship's security equipment, which Gregory said has already been shipped to St. Thomas. The Oasis of the Seas does not have its own facilities on board the ship to do the security screening for returning passengers.

Gregory said passengers will pass through the security building before boarding the ship. There are six X-ray machines to scan bags, he said.

Twelve people will be hired temporarily by the Port Authority to conduct the security screenings for the Oasis of the Seas, Gregory said.

Gov. John deJongh Jr. announced in October that having the Oasis of the Seas dock at Crown Bay is interim solution while the government finds a suitable location to put spoils from the St. Thomas Harbor dredging.

The initial plan proposed by the government was to dump the dredge material in Lindbergh Bay, but widespread community outcry halted the project.

WICO and the V.I. Port Authority had filed a joint CZM permit application in February to dredge the harbor and dump the 162,000 cubic yards of material into an existing depression in Lindbergh Bay.

The St. Thomas CZM Committee approved the permit for the project in May and the Legislature ratified it in June.

The last hurdle the project had to clear was obtaining a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer permit, but deJongh pulled the plug before a decision was made and directed WICO and the Port Authority to find an alternate dumping site.

A "mini task force" - which includes representatives from WICO, Port Authority and the Tourism and Public Works departments - was formed to consider other dump sites. Gregory said the first meeting of the group is scheduled for next week.

The task force is expected to be charged with coming up with an appropriate solution and to obtain the necessary permits in enough time for the dredging to be completed by October 2010 so Oasis of the Seas can dock in Havensight for the 2010-2011 season.

The cost of the dredging project itself will be funded by the cruise line. WICO and the Port Authority will put up the money and the cost will be recovered through a surcharge assessed to Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean's megaships - the Oasis and her sister ship the Allure of the Seas, set to be launched next year - will be the biggest on the ocean, carrying 5,400 passengers. The boats will have 16 decks, encompass 225,282 gross registered tons and boast 2,700 staterooms.

Winston Adams, Richard Brown, Fern LaBorde and Austin Monsanto attended Tuesday's meeting. Committee member Sarah Simmonds was absent.

- Contact reporter Aldeth Lewin at 774-8772 ext. 311 or e-mail alewin@dailynews.vi.