A crane barge floats near the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sept. 3, 2025, as part of preservation work. (Daniel Sanford/U.S. Navy)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — Regular shuttle boat service to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor resumed Sunday after several months of preservation work that curtailed access for visitors.
Shuttle boats are moving to and from the memorial every 15 minutes between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. daily, Pacific Historic Parks said in a news release Friday.
Pacific Historic Parks is the official nonprofit partner of the National Park Service at Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
Pacific Historic Parks, along with the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, announced last week that they were providing funding to keep sites at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial operating during the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Roughly two-thirds of the National Park Service’s 14,500 staff have been furloughed, leaving sites across the nation either closed or with limited operations and amenities.
Free tickets for the shuttle boat can be picked up at the Pacific Historic Parks Audio Tour Desk at the visitor center, the news release states.
Tickets are given on a first-come, first-served basis.
In May, Navy contractors began work, in coordination with the park service, to remove a pair of mooring platforms that were welded to the Arizona during salvage operations after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that sank the battleship.
Ferries, barges and ships were tethered to the platforms as workers stripped parts needed for the war effort.
Staff with the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in 2023 discovered that one of the platforms had shifted, with its concrete surface now inclined diagonally in the water.
Navy and park service divers assessed the condition of both platforms, and officials concluded that the platforms should be permanently removed to prevent damage to the Arizona’s hull.
Due to the unpredictable scheduling for work on the memorial, the park service in July suspended all advanced reservations for shuttles to the Arizona.
Since late summer the park service has announced daily whether shuttle service will be running that day, with visitors boarding on a first-come, first-served basis.
The USS Arizona Memorial opened in 1962 and honors the 1,177 crewmen who died on the battleship. The remains of 900 sailors and Marines who could not escape the sinking ship are entombed in its sunken hull.
Almost 2 million people visit the memorial each year.
