Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Panel Recommends Steel Pilings for Pier

The Huntington Beach Pier, closed last summer because engineers deemed it unsafe, should be rebuilt with plastic-coated steel pilings because they resist corrosion better than concrete, an advisory committee has decided.

Although the steel pilings are more expensive to construct than their concrete counterparts, the cost to install them is cheaper, said James Crumpley, pier project manager for Moffatt & Nichol Engineers, a Long Beach firm advising the city on the reconstruction.

Crumpley said Friday that the estimated cost of rebuilding the pier out of concrete is $10.7 million. Cost of the steel pilings has been estimated at $9.1 million, he said.

The Pier Design Committee this week decided to seek City Council approval of the steel pilings. The council is expected to consider it Feb. 6.

High seas that pounded Orange County shores a year ago this month ripped off 250 feet of the pier’s seaward end, including a restaurant. In July, engineers told city officials that the steel skeleton of the 1,800-foot concrete pier and its cross beams had eroded so severely that it was no longer safe.

Crumpley said that once funding from government sources is secured by the City Council and the Pier Funding Committee, actual reconstruction of the 77-year-old pier should take about a year. City officials say they hope to reopen the pier by late spring, 1991.