Surfside Pier getting closer to reopening 5 years after hurricane damage (2024)

SURFSIDE BEACH— Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Surfside Pier in October 2016, destroying enough of it to require complete demolition.

Five years later, construction crews were busy rebuilding the south Strand landmark — a sight that has become familiar over the course of more than a year that will continue until the projected completion this fall.

The town of Surfside Beach hoped to finish the pier July 4th, but that date will likely be pushed back because of design changes.

“I’m not saying that we can’t make it (by July 4th), but we’re still looking at opening in 2022,”Surfside Beach Mayor Bob Hellyersaid. “We’ll be there to fish by the end of the year.”

The pier will be roughly the same length as the old one, 800 feet, but will be nine feet taller at 25 feet.

The long route to rebuilding the Surfside Beach attractionis firmly rooted in finances, Hellyer said.

“We had to figure out where we were going to get the money to rebuild it and how we were going to rebuild it,” Hellyer said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said they would help the town finance the project if it was built according to its regulations, including raising it higher and buildings on the same footprint, Hellyer said.

Much of the delay, the mayor said, was 2½ years to get everything worked out—including protocols, environmental designs and evaluations.

“Based on that, FEMA decidedto give us $9.5 million to build our $16 million pier,” he said. The town has covered the rest of the cost.

This shortfall is due to the fact that FEMA is paying to rebuild the pier itself—not the structures that will be built on top.

“That’s what the difference is,” he said. “We (the Town of Surfside Beach) had to pay for the retail space that we (will) have on top of the pier— for our restaurant and our bait shop— the buildings that are going to go on the pier.”

The new Surfside Pier is being built on concrete pylons— making it the only oceanfront concrete pier in South Carolina, the town says. The old pier was made of wood.

Wood bends and sways and takes a beating when subjected to high winds and storm surges. The switch to concrete should be a game changer.

“We could have rebuilt immediately if we wanted to rebuild in wood, but we finally figured out that instead of building a pier that’s going to last us 20 years, we’re building a pier is going to last us 50 years," Hellyer said. "That concrete will not be destroyed by the storms."

The concrete pylons will be wider apart, lessening the pressure on the pier itself— and because the pier will be taller, the storm surge won’t pound the pier as much as it would if it were a smaller, wooden pier, the mayor said.

The popular Surf Diner has acontract to come back on to the pier.

"They ought to be opening as soon as the pier gets done,” Hellyer said.

Bill Howard, a Horry County Councilman who is theco-owner of Surf Diner, said they plan to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"We’re looking forward to getting back open. We had a heck of a business there," he said. "We really have no input— no involvement in building the buildings or the pier until they get them finished. All our involvement is on the upfit inside."

As for other buildings on the pier, Surfside Beach Town Manager Bill Shanahan said he wants to put together a pier committee made up of Surfside Beach residents to determine what the community wants to see done.

Then the town will put out requests for proposals, he said.