Makeover nearly done

Those who haven’t visited Corona del Mar State Beach lately on a weekday are missing a recent change — silence. The beach, which Newport Beach officials recently signed a $3.9-million contract to improve, finally has all the amenities council members asked for: a new lifeguard facility, more grass, new restrooms and more efficient parking lots.

What’s missing are work crews, which, residents complained, made too much noise. According to Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff, the construction originally scheduled to end on Memorial Day wrapped up in November, but accounting and paperwork have delayed the official notice of completion until now. The city manager’s staff will inform the council of that at the next Newport Beach City Council meeting on Feb. 27, he said.

“It’s so attractive now,” said Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, whose district includes the beach. “It’s more reflective of the city.”

Some trucks will return, though, as the beach undergoes another makeover. The City Council last week voted to sign a contract to take high-grade sand from China Cove Beach and add it to the eastern part of the beach, as well as to private Ruby Beach on Balboa Island.

Corona del Mar State Beach, which before construction had falling concrete and cracked tiles, will be a whole new place this summer, Kiff said.

“It definitely will be,” he said. “I would hope people enjoying the facilities are really going to appreciate it.”

The changes were long overdue, said Gardner, who remembers sprinting down the jetty as a girl growing up in Corona del Mar.

“It really hadn’t had attention paid to it in a holistic sense in a long while, especially since it’s such a popular beach,” she said. “You walk down to Big Corona and you see a microcosm of the region.”

One part of the new project beachgoers can appreciate is the timetable — adding sand is scheduled to end in May. Even if it doesn’t, workers will take a break and start up again when summer is over.