Pier Rebuilding Contract Awarded

The Manhattan Beach City Council on Tuesday awarded a $2.4-million contract for rebuilding the dilapidated, 71-year-old pier to Kiewit Pacific Co. of Vancouver, Wash. The work is to begin in late February and be completed in nine months.

The pier superstructure will be removed and replaced, and support pilings, girders and beams will be repaired.

The council this week also approved plans and asked for bids for reconstruction of the distinctive circular building, known as a roundhouse, that is at the end of the pier. This work, which the city has estimated at $500,000, will begin as pier reconstruction nears completion.

The project is designed to recapture the look the pier had when it was built in 1920, with the roundhouse following a year later. Globe lights will be used along the length of the pier, and the roundhouse will have French windows, a tile roof and a cupola. The work will be funded largely with state and federal money.

A contract for the entire pier project was to have been awarded last fall, but only one bid was received and it was rejected as too high. The project was then divided into two phases, the pier and the roundhouse, and plans were revised to reduce costs.