Buoyant at the boardwalk: LB celebrates reopening of local landmark<\/p>\n
Published 4:07 pm Sunday, April 12, 2026<\/p>\n
LONG BEACH \u2014 Number of deck screws: 121,920. Miles of wood: 23. Tons of wood and hardware: 122.<\/p>\n
Those were some of the stats rattled off by Long Beach City Administrator David Glasson last Friday about the extensive work on the city\u2019s boardwalk by construction crews since last summer. The April 10 reopening of the local icon was marked by a ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration at the Bolstad beach approach.<\/p>\n
The reconstruction of the boardwalk, which had not undergone major work since it was built in 1990, began last July and wrapped up in March. After being worn down by the peninsula\u2019s coastal weather and climate for 35 years, the project called for the replacement of all of the boardwalk\u2019s decking, as well as basically everything else above the piling \u2014 including the railings, and the lighting on the east railings. The structure was also raised in some areas.<\/p>\n
The renovation was completed by Woodridge Construction. The Snohomish County-based contractor had the lowest bid of more than a dozen companies interested in the project, at $2.26 million \u2014 about $900,000 less than what the city\u2019s engineering firm estimated the project would cost, representing significant savings for Long Beach. Additional costs since then brought the total to about $2.5 million.<\/p>\n
The city used a $2.5 million grant that it was awarded from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2022 to pay for the project. Long Beach had previously spent several years trying to secure state or federal funding to reconstruct the boardwalk.<\/p>\n
Foes turned to fans<\/p>\n
Glasson, who began working for the city in 1989, a year before the boardwalk was christened, recalled the amount of effort that was required to build the original structure. The estimated cost was $400,000 \u2014 \u201cwhich was really a lot of money\u201d at the time \u2014 and Long Beach began applying for grants.<\/p>\n
Long Beach eventually received roughly $200,000 in state funding that had originally been slated for the City of Leavenworth \u2014 for which Glasson said he\u2019s always had a soft spot for the Central Washington city \u2014 and took out a 10-year loan from the Bank of the Pacific to cover the remaining cost. The city also received a legislative assist from state Sen. Sid Snyder after the state auditor\u2019s office asserted Long Beach couldn\u2019t use lodging tax funds on the project.<\/p>\n
Local support for the boardwalk wasn\u2019t robust initially, Glasson said, recalling when the contractor for the project hit the arch with their crane. Further complaints piled up as work began, with those opposed arguing that it looked like a cattle crossing and would ruin the beach experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember literal tears in the council chambers of people who thought this was the worst project in the world and we\u2019ve got to stop it,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s fun now, though, because those same people are the ones who\u2019ve used it for the last 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once completed, however, Glasson said the boardwalk changed the minds of its detractors \u201cand the trajectory of Long Beach. We were 1776036548 on our way to becoming a destination\u2026any project that benefits tourism also benefits us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayoral and staff success<\/p>\n
Svendsen credited former Mayor Jerry Phillips for his dogged pursuit of outside funding to make the project a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Jerry\u2019s project\u2026 and I\u2019m sure he\u2019s pretty psyched,\u201d Svendsen said at the reopening. Glasson said Phillips \u201ckept at it,\u201d even as cost estimates for the reconstruction soared during his years in office.<\/p>\n
Phillips, who was also in attendance and addressed those gathered, said it\u2019s been a long journey seeing the reconstruction of the boardwalk finally come to fruition. It\u2019s an amenity that has benefited both visitors and locals alike, he added, and is poised to do so for many more years because of this project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a great day for me to see this happen,\u201d Phillips concluded.<\/p>\n
Svendsen, Phillips and Glasson also heaped praise on Ariel Smith, the city\u2019s deputy administrator, for her persistence in working to secure grant funding for the project while also maneuvering administrative headaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s the one that really did a lot of work on the administrative and legislative stuff,\u201d Phillips noted.<\/p>\n
Smith, Svendsen said, had been joking that the new boardwalk needed to be christened the same way a new ship is \u2014 with smashing a bottle of champagne across its bow. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was kind of kidding, and I took it seriously,\u201d Svendsen said, adding that it\u2019s both the beginning of a new voyage for Long Beach while simultaneously the end of a long one for Smith.<\/p>\n
And while it may have taken a few more swings over the boardwalk\u2019s railing than she expected, she indeed had her long-awaited day of jubilee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buoyant at the boardwalk: LB celebrates reopening of local landmark Published 4:07 pm Sunday, April 12, 2026 LONG…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-264655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}