Council to Rule on Pier Repair Bid

The Ventura City Council will decide Monday whether to pay a Santa Barbara construction company $503,621 to begin repairs to the wave-battered Ventura Pier.

City officials hope to shore up the century-old landmark before winter with steel reinforcements. The pier was partially destroyed when giant waves crushed 425 feet from its seaward end during a December 1995 storm.

If the council agrees to award the bid, initial repairs would begin next month.

Six construction bids were received by the city. Cushman Contracting Corp., which worked on the pier in 1992, submitted the lowest bid, falling below the city engineering department’s $600,000 estimate.

The project would be the first of two phases of construction slated for the pier. It consists of replacing damaged timber piles and reinforcing the existing structure with steel supports beneath the decking.

The second phase would include the extension of the pier as far as possible based on available funding, according to a city report.

“This project will significantly increase the strength of the pier,” a city report says of the first phase, “but the pier will remain susceptible to damage from large waves such as those that occurred in December 1995.”

The repairs will require closing the pier for months and its restaurant on Harbor Boulevard for at least a couple of weeks. To offset the loss to the restaurant, the contractor will be charged $400 a day for every day the restaurant remains shuttered.