The city’s more than halfway through an approximately $5.5 million restoration of Mission Beach’s boardwalk, which will return the well-trod thoroughfare to its 1920s condition.
Since Labor Day of 2015, the city has been replacing the walkway, splash wall and seawall along Mission Beach’s Belmont Park. The plan is to restore the coastal landmark to mimic how it looked when it was first constructed in the 1920s. The work is scheduled to be completed by Memorial Day, May 30.
“The scope of work is 1,800 linear feet of the boardwalk,” said Scott Robinson, city public information officer.
“This project is in the heaviest trafficked portion of the sea wall, which is more than 100 years old,” said city engineer Jamal Batta, noting the elements, especially the corrosive effects of saltwater, have gradually eroded the walls and rusted the metal rods supporting it.
The project entails more than just boardwalk replacement.
“We’re actually replacing or putting in 26 new light fixtures that are made from the same manufacturer who made the original light fixtures from the 1920s,” said Robinson. “That’s Spring City, a Pennsylvania company that’s been in business since 1843. Spring City has done much of the lighting for New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. Now they’re fabricating the same molds for the new ones (Belmont lights).”
On Feb. 24, Mayor Kevin Faulconer and 2nd District Councilwoman Lorie Zapf toured boardwalk construction in Mission Beach.
“Reconstructing the boardwalk is good for our beach neighborhoods, good for our tourism economy and good for preserving a piece of San Diego history,” Faulconer said. “This is an example of how we’re building our better future by investing in neighborhoods throughout the city.”
“Restoring the infrastructure of one of San Diego’s most precious resources is greatly needed and will be appreciated by all,” Zapf said.
The ongoing boardwalk bulkhead construction project is part of a longer-term effort to improve the entire boardwalk and seawall along Mission Beach in future years.
Robinson said other MB boardwalk improvements will be conducted in a 10-year timeline, competing with other proposed infrastructure projects citywide for priority.
Batta said Mission Beach’s boardwalk currently has a layer of deteriorating asphalt over the original 1920s concrete. The city engineer noted that boardwalk replacement is both time and manpower intensive. He said construction work being done will also fill in “cavities” underneath the boardwalk to help make it more erosion resistant.
Robinson said construction work includes installing antique lighting fixtures with modern lights, as well as installation of two disabled-accessible park benches, plus improvements to three beach-access points opening from the boardwalk onto the beach.
Robinson added the MB boardwalk restoration project falls within the city’s recently passed Climate Action Plan, which calls for doing self-sustaining projects which cut down on environmental impacts.
“The LED lights and other efficiencies with this project do fall in line with the general specifics of the Climate Action Plan,” he said.
Belmont Park and its boardwalk was originally developed by sugar magnate John Spreckels and opened on July 4, 1925 as the Mission Beach Amusement Center. Besides providing recreation and amusement, the park also was intended as a way to help Spreckels sell land in Mission Beach.
Attractions and rides from the original 1925 park include the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Another historic Belmont facility is The Plunge indoor swimming pool, now being torn down for reconstruction as a modern pool. The freshwater Plunge originally contained salt water.
The plunge has been closed since 2014 due to disrepair. Plans to demolish and rebuild it were approved in January 2016, with work to be completed in 2018.
In 2002, businessman/surfer Tom Lochtefeld bought the master lease for the Belmont Park property and started development of the Wave House.
In November 2012 Pacifica Enterprises LLC. acquired the park leasehold in a bankruptcy trustee sale. Pacifica Enterprises with Eat.Drink.Sleep assumed operations of the park and started a restoration and revitalization of the park. Eat.Drink.Sleep’s team of Brett Miller, Steve Smith and Justin Lopez developed and led the opening of new restaurants, Cannonball, South Mission Draft, Belmonty’s Burgers and Hot Dog on a Stick and a remodel of Wavehouse Beach Club.