Old Crystal Cove footbridge to return

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- State stewards of the historic cottages at the state

park have launched efforts to rebuild an original footbridge to improve

access to the beach, parks officials said.

Acting as a quasi-gateway to a group of hard-to-reach cottages in the

center of the cove’s historic district, the bridge would allow

pedestrians and visitors with disabilities to reach a handful of the

cottages.

California State Parks officials, managing the protection and

restoration of the 46 cottages, are working in partnership with activist

and former resident Laura Davick, who co-founded the Crystal Cove

Conservancy, a nonprofit group raising money to restore the cottages.

“What we’ll be able to do is open an area that is inaccessible to

handicapped visitors,” Davick said. “That’s the driving force.”

The bridge, which was built in the 1930s, had allowed pedestrians to

cross a drainage channel that carries urban runoff to the beach. It was

washed out during heavy rains in 1994 and again during the El Nino storm

of 1998.

About $50,000 has been set aside to rebuild the bridge. This time,

state architects will redesign it to withstand a heavy storm, Orange

Coast District Supt. Mike Tope said.

“It’ll be the exact replica of what was there before,” Tope said.

“We’re going to try to make a few modifications to keep it from being

washed out again.”

Initially, the bridge led visitors onto the patio of one of the former

residents of the cove.

Plans are in the works to restore the ramshackle buildings and,

perhaps, use the patio to host educational talks and other social events

in the cove, Davick said. As part of the rebuilding of the bridge, the

new structure will be widened to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

The new bridge would also be anchored to the concrete flood channel,

which was put in after the El Nino storm.

In its two previous incarnations, the bridge was a wooden structure

anchored to the channel with a wooden post sunk into the mud on the creek

floor.

State parks officials will need to secure a permit from the California

Coastal Commission to rebuild the bridge. The state may not need to go

through a full hearing, as the plan is to rebuild an existing structure

and not to erect a new one, Tope said.

The bridge should be in by the end of the year, Tope said.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and politics. He may be reached

at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7 paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .