Boaters, anglers, sightseers and any other visitors to South Whidbey Harbor can breathe a bit easier this week.

Port of South Whidbey commissioners approved in a special meeting Wednesday a $175,000 contract with a construction firm to fix what increasingly appears to be a host of problems with the new floats. It was a good decision, albeit a tardy one. The port has known about problems with the docks for over a year, and while some of the reasons for putting off a fix seemed reasonable, the dock has actually begun to physically fall apart. No one was hurt and no catastrophe unfolded, but hindsight now makes it clear the work probably should have been completed right away.

South Whidbey Harbor’s expansion was finished in early 2014, officially bringing to an end a ridiculously long effort — it took years — to add about 330 feet of dock space outside the wooden breakwater. It’s just the first of a multi-phase vision for an expanded marina.

Like any good public project it was rife with hurdles, from major revisions in scope to a painful permitting process with federal and local governments. Construction didn’t go any smoother. There were unexpected cost overruns, a barge nearly sank and another tipped and dumped a massive crane overboard.

It was a mess, and much more than anyone realized. After the project was complete, the port hired divers to inspect the 13 underwater anchor lines that hold the new docks in place and five were found crisscrossed and rubbing. The port blames the contractor for stringing them up wrong, and the contractor says it did the work as specified. It remains unresolved.

The port did hire an engineering firm that released an October 2014 report recommending abrasion damage to braided anchor lines be addressed right away, and the rest within 12 months. That deadline passed months ago.

Though the same engineering company has been kept up to date with additional inspections, and reportedly gave the port the all clear, recently a weight that tensions an anchor line dropped free, causing the dock to swing out of alignment. Port officials say it was likely the result of a cotter pin (a piece of metal that holds a shackle together) that was made out of mild steel, rather than stainless. It appears to have corroded off, causing the joint to fall apart. Further inspection showed another was missing as well.

Whether it corroded off, was never installed or simply the result of a dock gremlin, we may never know for sure. Whatever the case, completing the repairs immediately likely would have revealed the cotter pin shortcoming along with any other yet-to-be-discovered problems.

It’s easy to make such conclusions in hindsight, so we’re not screaming foul. But, it’s a textbook example of why it’s always better to be safe than sorry, even if your engineers say everything is A-OK. The commissioners should stow this experience in their project tool belt and next time not wait until stuff starts falling apart to greenlight a fix.