Dana Point Pier Repair Lumbers On for a Year

It won’t be much comfort to the people who face the task of rebuilding the Huntington Beach Pier, which was suddenly and indefinitely closed to the public last week, but such a reconstruction project is no snap.

Proof of the fact lies in Dana Point Harbor, where work to restore a much smaller pier began last September with a completion date set for three months later. The job is still going on.

“We can’t even blame bad weather. It’s mostly been a matter of finding more damage than was first expected, plus a series of delays in getting materials,” said C.B. Shannep of Anchor Marine Co., who is superintendent of the job.

Now, it is hoped, the work will be completed by late August or early September at a cost of $168,000, rather than the estimated $157,000.

The amount of work involved and the cost are small potatoes compared to the Huntington Beach situation, where construction will be done in a pounding surf line to restore a 1,840-foot pier at a cost of undetermined millions of dollars.

The Dana Point Pier is only 304 feet long and, although it was built in the early 1950s when its location was fair game to heavy seas and buffeting winds, it has been snugly protected since the late 1960s by massive breakwaters built to form Dana Point Harbor.

It sustained no damage even during the violent storms of last January, which tore off 250 feet of the Huntington Beach Pier and destroyed a restaurant there.

“The storms didn’t affect our work,” Shannep said. “In fact, they just gave me a chance to catch up on piles of paper work.”

Before the harbor was built, the stubby little Dana Point Pier, located beneath the bluffs at the east end of the harbor near the Orange County Marine Institute, was a favorite spot for fishermen and strollers. By 1958, it boasted a small hot dog stand near its end.

Since 1981, the stand has been operated by Paula Hops, a friendly, outgoing person who made hundreds of friends among fishermen and others who simply visited the pier to enjoy open air and views of placid harbor waters, mewing gulls and passing yachts. The tallship Pilgrim II, a duplicate of the brig on which seaman-author Richard Henry Dana visited this coast 150 years ago, is moored a few yards away, adding a salty ambiance to the scene.

Relocation of the hot dog stand to the foot of the pier was part of the reconstruction project, which became necessary when deck planks were worn thin by foot traffic, rust attacked metal railings and other fixtures and a ramp leading down to a small floating dock became inoperable.

For some time, county officials debated over whether the stand should be put back on the pier or remain ashore. There still has been no official decision.

“Personally, I’d like to see it stay where it is on the shore,” said Robert F. Wingard, director of the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department. “Since it was shifted there, business has picked up for Paula Hops. She has picnic tables she didn’t have before. “ And, he said, the percentage of her gross that she pays to the county has increased, although he did not have exact figures.

Hops declined to discuss the business end of her operation.

Mary Murray, pier project director for the county, said the improvements are being financed by a grant of $66,950 from the state Wildlife Conservation Board that was matched by the county for a total of $133,900.

However, the lowest bid received was $157,000 from Shannep’s Anchor Marine Co. of Dana Point. At that time, Wingard said the county would pick up the difference, and Shannep said the additional $11,000 that brings the final cost to $168,000 also will come from the county.

He said initial work on the pier showed that “there was a lot more rot in timbers below the decking than we first thought,” meaning that additional heavy beams measuring 6 by 17 inches, and 3-by-12-inch planking had to be ordered.

“All of the lumber we use has to be specially treated with a copper-base solution (to resist salt water ravages), and we have run into delays of up to 10 weeks in getting our orders, because the lumber companies tell me they’ve been shipping a lot of stuff to Japan.”

He said the 50 original concrete pilings needed only minor repairs. Work remaining to be done includes completion of the decking, restoration of the landing ramp and construction of a new 50-foot dock near the base of the pier.