Extension of Breakwaters at Redondo Is Expected

The breakwaters at Redondo Beach’s King Harbor--criticized as too low in the aftermath of this week’s storm that caused more than $16 million in damage--will likely be raised and extended, an Army Corps of Engineers official said.

Col. Tadahiko Ono said in an interview that such a project--estimated to cost $7 million to $10 million--is recommended in a draft report to Congress that will be released next month. The recommendations follow a study that the corps has conducted over the last few years and are based on hard-hitting storms in 1983, not the fierce storm that hit this week.

But in the wake of the recent storm, the recommendations may be revised to ask for even more improvements to the breakwaters and speed up the work.

“We’re hoping to begin construction, and in fact complete construction, before the winter season of . . . ‘89-’90,” said Ono, who oversees water resources projects and military construction for Southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada and southwestern Utah. Officials had said that such work could be completed no sooner than 1992.

Meanwhile, work has begun to repair the damage from the crippling combination of an Arctic storm, strong winds and high tides Sunday and Monday.

The Redondo Beach City Council allocated slightly more than $1 million Tuesday night for cleaning and some immediate repairs--all the money set aside over the last several years for just such an emergency, city officials said.

Yet that money will be far short of what is needed to restore King Harbor to the thriving business, recreational and tourist center it had become. The city officials’ $16-million-plus damage estimate includes more than $2 million to city property, $8 million to the Portofino Inn and $1 million to the Blue Moon Saloon. The rest covers other private property, businesses and boats.

It does not include the $1 million to $3 million needed to repair the main breakwater.

But just repairing that breakwater will not satisfy frustrated city officials, business owners and boaters, many of whom have been pleading for years to get the barrier raised while warning that it might not withstand a severe storm.

The test came Sunday and Monday as the roughest storm in recent memory warred with the California coastline, centering its damage on Redondo Beach’s mile-long King Harbor.

Waves, some more than 25 feet high, washed over the breakwater as if it wasn’t there. And when the storm subsided, some of it wasn’t. The ocean’s force knocked out huge boulders--some weighing several thousand pounds--and left at least seven gaping holes in the barrier, which is three-quarters of a mile long.

The northern portion of the breakwater is 22 feet high and the remainder is 14 feet. The city has been trying to get the federal government to raise the entire breakwater to 22 feet for at least 10 years.

Many people believe that a larger breakwater could have prevented much of the destruction, including the damage to the three-story Portofino Inn, which city officials estimate was 90% destroyed. Six rooms fell into the ocean.

About 25 other businesses were damaged, including three restaurants that officials said were almost complete losses. A 65-foot commercial fishing boat, the City of Redondo, broke from its mooring and sank. City officials estimate that 75 to 120 private boats were damaged.