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 .
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