Hansen Dam Project to Open for Summer Dips

First, El Nino pushed back the completion date. Then, contractors said they were hoping to finish earlier. Now, about the most they’ll say is that two new lakes at Hansen Dam will be ready for use by recreation’s prime time: summer.

With about 55% of the work completed, the 10 1/2-acre body of water with separate areas for swimming and boating is scheduled to be turned over to the city by mid-May at the latest, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the $14-million construction project financed with federal and city funds.

That comes after Southwest Engineering of Santa Monica was granted a 71-day extension for rain delays, foiling hopes for a February completion.

Ed Louie, the Army Corps’ assistant project manager for Hansen Dam, said he anticipates that the contractor will not need the entire extension, and he expects to turn the project over to the city by mid-April.

After that, officials with the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks say it could take as long as a month to fill the lakes, acquire county water-quality certification and certify various other safety requirements.

No opening date has been set, said Bob Fawcett, the city’s Hansen Dam project manager.

That doesn’t dampen Louie’s enthusiasm.

“It’s going to be one heck of a beautiful facility,” he said. “This will be a draw for the whole area.”

The draw, Louie said, will be a swimming area the size of 1 1/2 football fields--with pool-quality water--next to a 9 1/2-acre boating and fishing lake.

Hansen Dam’s new watering hole will replace a shuttered, long-in-decline recreation area called Holiday Lake, which was damaged by several floods and finally closed in 1982.

In hopes of preventing the same kind of damage, workers have added a bentonite layer on what will be the boating section of the lake, Louie said. That sealant will make the lake impervious, so water won’t filter back through the ground below.

Next comes a cap of soil and concrete as a final liner, Louie said. The swimming section will be lined in concrete in the next couple of months.

The contractor has also completed pouring the foundation for the project’s three restroom facilities, in addition to completing two boat docks for launching non-power boats, Louie said.

Filter tanks for the swimming lake are scheduled to be installed next month, Louie said.

“I’m very, very excited that the community is finally going to have the opportunity to swim at Hansen Dam again, like when I was a kid,” Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said.

“I think more than anything else it was emotionally draining for the community to not be able to use those facilities that had been so well-known to the people who had used them.”