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Endless summer, endless construction
HB pier won't reopen until October
by Robb Fulcher
The
city's signature landmark, the Hermosa Beach Pier, will remain closed to the
public until October, as officials continue to wrestle with a huge renovation
project plagued by minor glitches and major delays.
"Actually, it frustrates the hell out of me," Mayor JR Reviczky said Monday.
The dilapidated pier was closed in the fall of 1998 for major repairs to its cracked and eroded pylons, replacement of its railings and light fixtures and resurfacing of the concrete deck that stretches out 1,200 feet into the Pacific Ocean.
Last August, city officials predicted that the pier might be reopened to foot traffic as early as January. When that deadline passed, they crossed their fingers for April, and when that month ended, they said they were shooting for June. Finally, with the summer wasting away, they said sorry, the pier won't reopen until fall.
The new due date for the pier's reopening is Oct. 12, two years after it was closed.
Reasons for delays
Reviczky said he gets "a lot of questions" from residents about the pier. And while he is as itchy as anyone to place his feet upon the finished structure, he said the overhaul has dragged on not by any fault of the city government, but because of the project's complexity and importance.
The first delay occurred when workers inspected the eroded pylons from a boat and identified a certain amount of damage, and then found more damage upon a closer inspection when they crawled around netting slung directly under the pier's deck.
As the project went on, Reviczky said, problems arose with an adhesive used in the resurfacing of the deck, and questions came up about the supply of metal for the new railings.
"The pier is a unique environment. It's a harsh marine environment," he said. "Some of the materials we've tried to use out there have not lived up to our expectations when we've tested them out."
The city council also rejected a contractor's first stab at providing light fixtures, which will be mounted about three feet high rather than overhead, to cast an ambient glow on the deck itself without dimming the view over the ocean.
"I would have to say some of the delay is our fault," Reviczky said.
"We didn't like the first submittal of the light fixtures. You walk down the pier and they would practically blind you. We're going to have fixtures that will wash the deck with light so you can see where you're walking, but when you look out over the ocean you won't get that light pollution like you do with overhead lights," he said.
The rejection of those first light fixtures alone cost the project a month's delay.
"Construction is like that, it's a frustrating business," said Reviczky, who works as a supervisor of the electrical portions of major construction projects, including the wiring of the Getty Center.
"Nobody has done any major work on the pier since it was rebuilt in 1965," Reviczky said. "When we get this done, we won't have to do it again for another 40 years."
The pier's repairs are funded by about $2.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the California Coastal Conservancy and Prop. A.
Looking ahead
Officials have also turned their attention to a revamping of the pier head area, including the replacement of the public restroom building. The entire project is expected to cost more than $2 million, funded largely by the same sources as the repair, plus a $1 million donation last year by longtime Hermosa resident David T. Schumacher.
Reviczky said that he and Councilwoman Julie Oakes, who make up a council subcommittee for pier matters, hope to submit a design for the new pier head to the rest of the council in September.
Reviczky said that architects purkis rose of Fullerton are expected to present drawings of the proposed pier design to the subcommittee next week, after much discussion back and forth and the rejection of three previous designs.
"Unless we change our minds again, I think Julie and I are pretty well set," Reviczky said.
The tentative design incorporates long-held plans to replace the bathroom building with one that is larger, but not taller, and to overhaul the lifeguard building to add a full women's locker room and make space for vehicles and 911 equipment.
Reviczky said the tentative design also will feature:
* A raised observation deck just south of the pier, which will offer a view out over the vehicle area of the lifeguard building,
* A set of steps leading down from the north side of the pier head to the sand,
* A number of swirling, multicolored designs resembling nautilus shells on the pier head pavement,
* A semicircle of potted palm trees curving out toward the northwest,
* Twin decorative pillars flanking the entrance to the pier itself, reminiscent of the Hermosa pier of yesteryear that featured two pillars supporting an arch over the entrance.
The council subcommittee had previously suggested a tots' play area at the pier head, anchored by a half-submerged concrete whale with a water-spouting blowhole. That idea was scrapped.
Council members have promised that they will hold public hearings before a design for the pier head is approved. After that is done, construction is estimated to take about a year.
The end, my friend
Still on the back burner is a plan by council members for a building at the pier's western end.
Tentative suggestions kicked around by the council have included a surf museum, although the museum's driving force, Aloha Days co-founder Abel Ybarra, had proposed building it at the pier head instead.
Councilman John Bowler has publicly mentioned the possibility of a Ruby's diner as the pier's end.
Pier at the past
The pier has been rebuilt from the ground up three times over the course of a century. It was 1900 or thereabouts when someone, probably hobbyist fishermen, built the first spindly, wood trestle structure.
"A serious approach to building a real pleasure pier got under way in 1912," wrote Patricia A. Gazin in her 1991 book "Footnotes on the Sand." Residents voted to tax themselves for the construction, approving bonds by a whopping 204 to 47.
A firm was selected for the $55,000 job, and a pier inspector was hired for $4 a day to watch as the 1,000-foot concrete structure was built.
Soon after, the pier, along with possibilities of harbor development in Redondo Beach, was credited with driving the price of oceanfront lots up to $1,000, with terms of $50 down followed by $10 a month.
The pier grew old and in 1957 it was closed down, to be replaced by the current pier, which was dedicated in 1965. The current structure is 220 feet longer than the old one, its deck rising 50 feet above the ocean floor on pilings that stand in 25 feet of water. ER