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READY FOR SUMMER
Dockweiler State Beach will welcome visitors with $14 million overhaul.
By Kristin S. Agostoni
STAFF WRITER
With just a few weeks before Memorial Day weekend, Dockweiler State Beach could be better prepped than ever to handle hordes of sunbathers and swimmers.
Three years after county officials approved a multimillion-dollar overhaul to beach amenities, the stretch of shoreline between El Segundo and Playa del Rey now sports two new lifeguard substations, freshly paved parking lots, a renovated concession stand and a maintenance building with more office and storage space for Los Angeles County lifeguards and the Department of Beaches and Harbors.
And visitors can rest assured; the bathrooms, too, are bigger and better. They now consist of four new buildings with more stalls and showers.
County officials unveiled the more than $14 million in improvements Wednesday during a short waterfront dedication ceremony.
The sand was clean, and the surf blue. And true to form, speakers were interrupted by the occasional sound of a jet taking off from nearby Los Angeles International Airport -- what one official dubbed "the Dockweiler salute."
The beach improvements also include work on the recreational vehicle park, where each spot now offers campers water, electric and sewer hookups -- not just the front two rows.
"If you want to spend a few nights at the beach, you can't do it any cheaper than at Dockweiler," county Supervisor Don Knabe said.
The project that started to take shape in the spring of 2004 was expected to cost about $11 million, said David Sommers, the supervisor's spokesman.
The work was to be funded with money from the county's Proposition A sales tax and state Proposition 40, which voters passed in 2002 for coastal improvements.
But the costs grew because of construction delays and damage caused by the winter storms of 2005, Sommers said, prompting officials to kick in another $3 million from the county's general fund.
Although most of the focus was on renovating older buildings, the beach added a pair of lifeguard substations: one near Imperial Highway and another by Culver Boulevard. County lifeguard Chief Mike Frazier said the buildings' elevated platforms provide visibility for at least a mile in each direction.
The amenities unveiled Wednesday are part of Dockweiler's first phase of improvements. The next component includes a new aquatic-recreation youth center for the county's Water Awareness, Training, Education and Recreation program classes and camps.
That building is planned south of Imperial Highway just off Vista del Mar and across from the Hyperion Treatment Plant, near El Segundo.
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