Ventura’s well-known pier reopened Saturday after huge waves broken the landmark final 12 months.
Social media posts and information video footage confirmed folks striding onto the pier early Saturday, carrying fishing poles, coolers and folding chairs. The pier — the oldest in California — is a well-liked fishing and sight-seeing spot and attracts vacationers, households and lovebirds.
“The Ventura Pier is open!” the town of Ventura introduced on its X feed.
Excessive surf from a winter storm pummeled the boardwalk in January 2023. In December, one other storm swept via, inflicting extra injury to the pier’s piles and braces.
Mary Joyce Ivers, deputy public works director in Ventura, advised KTLA that the town needed to substitute 37 timber piles, which maintain up the deck of the pier, in addition to 100 items of {hardware} and cross-bracing and three,000 sq. ft of deck board.
“It’s such an necessary piece of our metropolis,” Ivers advised KTLA. “It’s such an incredible landmark and so many nice issues occur on this pier for households and our neighborhood.”
The repairs value not less than $3.3 million, with the federal authorities and the state anticipated to choose up the tab, based on a metropolis information launch.
The pier, first inbuilt 1872 as a personal business wharf, has been repaired or rebuilt numerous occasions all through its historical past. It closed in 1992 for 13 months after it was clobbered by waves and reopened after a $3.5-million restoration.
Extra lately, it closed in 2015 for a number of months for repairs after one other storm.
Ventura bought the pier for $7,000 in 1940 however gave it to the state in 1949.
In 1990, the town moved to take it again after state officers stated they had been contemplating demolishing the construction due to the excessive upkeep prices.
