On Tuesday, December 1, the day after hurricane season ends, Vice-Dale County and the State begin an eighteen-month renovation of Ocean Beach. The work replaces the beach walk along the sand, renews the lifeguard towers, rebuilds the dunes and lays new drains under Shore Drive, which floods at the highest tides of the year.
The $64 million project is paid for by Vice-Dale County, with the dunes and the drains funded by the State under the Coastal Resilience Act. The Art Deco hotels along Shore Drive are not part of the work: their pastel fronts stay exactly as they are.
Three stretches, one at a time
- December to early March: the south end, up to the lifeguard headquarters, with a new beach walk and new towers painted in the same sunset colors as the old ones
- April to October 2027: the middle stretch, with the new drains under Shore Drive and dunes replanted with sea oats, crossed by new paths to the sand
- November 2027 to May 2028: the north end, up to Vice Beach
- No work during the Ocean Beach Sunset Festival in March, on holiday weekends or at night
What stays open
The beach itself never closes. Every hotel, restaurant and shop on Shore Drive stays open, and no more than two blocks of the beach walk are fenced off at a time, with a marked path along the sidewalk. Lifeguards work from temporary towers where the old ones come down, beach wheelchairs are still lent at the lifeguard headquarters, and the free Ocean Beach trolley keeps its loop, with two stops moved a block inland.
Crews work on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some metered spaces on Shore Drive close while they work next to them: use the garages one block behind, or come by Metro. The Ocean Beach Police Department directs traffic around the work zones.
Ocean Beach is the postcard, and even a postcard needs a new frame now and then. We are doing it in pieces, by daylight, so that nobody spends their vacation looking at a fence.
