The beleaguered Malibu Pier is ready to make a refreshed debut to the public this summer after a $4.5 million dollar makeover — although it was not done quite in time for the busy Memorial Day Weekend. Estimates are that by the end of June the end of the pier should be cleared of construction equipment and open for business.
The 112-year-old structure and iconic symbol of Malibu beach culture was in need of work to shore up aging support pilings. After being closed due to storm damage in the late 1990s, the pier was reopened in 2008, but more storm damage from Hurricane Marie necessitated additional work that was broken into three phases. Phase II, almost completed, has been ongoing for three months. Construction crews have been drilling through the sand below the pier and into bedrock to support the upper deck with huge pilings. This phase is slightly under budget and ahead of schedule.
The pier, which is part of the California State Parks system, will actually need a third phase of reworking, according to Craig Sap, the superintendant of California State Parks Angeles District. The next construction period, however, will start after the summer crowds are gone.
“Ultimately, there will be a third phase to deal with the wastewater system,” Sap described. “There’s currently an undersized waste water system that’s functional, but it’s not optimal and we’ll be installing a better system after the summer.”
It’s not just summer tourists, however, flocking to the Malibu Pier. It’s become a popular attraction year-round.
“It’s obviously over the past four years an increasingly more attractive destination for the public,” Sap described. “It’s something we never anticipated – the amount of people who’ve gone there. The amount of traffic that’s been directed in that area has been astounding. It’s always been our mission at State Parks to really appreciate the fact that how many people are going there as a destination.
“It’s really down to social media,” Sap detailed. “It’s hyper-focused people to certain areas, and whether it be Facebook or Instagram or other social media sites, people are taking photos and directing people to this location. We’re really aware of this and we’re hoping that with Phase II being completed that hopefully with issues we have with parking that working with the city and their partners ensure that everybody gets a chance to get out there. As it is, parking has been kind of limited with the area the contractor has, but hopefully with the completion of the project we have additional parking availability.”
After the summer there will be another big draw to the Malibu Pier when two vessels of note will be visiting. The Malibu Navy League is working to schedule the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain for a public visit in September or October. Also scheduled for October is the sailing of the San Salvador into Malibu. The boat, a replica of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s ship, passed through Malibu briefly last week, but will make a bigger splash in the fall.
Malibu City Council member Jefferson Wagner is the concessionaire with Malibu Pier Partners at the Malibu Pier State Park. He is also a decade -long member of the Adamson House Board of Directors that approved funds to bring the San Salvador to visit Malibu.
“Except for the engines and the bathrooms and a few other amenities, it’s pretty much a replica of the ship that came here 475 years ago,” Wagner described. “It’s about a hundred feet and it’s a square master. It’s kind of a unique vessel. When it sailed by last week people said, ‘There’s a pirate ship! There’s a pirate ship!’ There was a joke going on the pier when it came that it’s Johnny Depp’s new ship!”
The San Salvador is scheduled to be in Malibu the second week of October for three days and two nights.
“We are going to be telling all the schools, including the Las Virgenes School District, that 4th and 5th graders who are taking California history might want to make a field trip out of it,” Wagner said. “The Adamson House Foundation will run the operation. The AHF has paid for the boat to come out as an educational benefit. Docents will run the visit. The docents are very important.”
Tickets will be sold but available free to students. “It’ll be the best ticket in town,” Wagner promised. An announcement for ticket sales will be coming soon.
