The Columbia River Maritime Museum held a ceremonial groundbreaking Feb. 7 for Mariners Hall, its $31.5 million expansion project.

Mariners Hall, which will be a two-story building adjacent to the museum off Marine Drive, will display dozens of historic vessels and artifacts in a second exhibit hall.

The hall is expected to add more than 24,000 square feet of exhibit space. Attendees at Friday’s groundbreaking were able to examine a model of the Mariners Hall in the museum.

Exhibit plans for Mariners Hall include showcasing several boats now in storage, such as the Merrimac, a 45-foot wooden yacht built by Astoria Marine Construction Co. in 1938, and The Duke, a salmon tender built in 1902 by Wilson Bros. in Astoria.

The largest of the hall’s exhibits will be the 52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph II, which served local fishermen at Point Adams and Cape Disappointment for 60 years.

Other plans for the new building include a classroom for museum education programs and a science, technology, engineering, arts and math space.

The museum is working with Rickenbach Construction, based in Astoria, as the project’s general contractor, along with Portland-based Opsis Architecture and Seattle-based exhibit designer Storyline Studio.