Every year in spring, the Central Coast chapter of the American Public Works Association announces both their Project of the Year Awards and Professional of the Year Awards. This year, the City of Pismo Beach was honored with a Project of the Year award for the newly installed Pismo Beach Pier Plaza project. Cannon’s team led the materials testing, office engineering services, funding administration, and the construction management and inspection for this keystone project.

The recently constructed Pismo Beach Plaza project transformed the base of the historic Pismo Beach Pier into an attractive and functional public space, housing the new pedestrian plaza and parking lot. Upgrades included lighting along the perimeter seawall; cast-in-place concrete seating with decorative formwork and tile inlays of ocean scenes; showers and restrooms; colorful low impact development (LID) pavers; storm drain and sewer system improvements; and underground storm water detention storage and infiltration. A new parking lot, beach access structure, and a playground were also featured. The most striking addition to the plaza might be the free-standing “Pismo Beach” sign, an illuminated art installation with fiber glass letters, standing over 6 feet tall.

The completed Pismo Plaza has quickly become an iconic destination for tourists and locals alike. Charlie Gray, who acted as Cannon’s resident engineer on the project, had this to say: “I would like to thank Earth Systems Pacific and SWCA for assisting Cannon with the Materials Testing and Archaeological Monitoring on this project, and the City of Pismo Beach with trusting us with such an important project for them. I would especially like to thank Christine Kahn, our lead Construction Inspector for the project who was onsite everyday making sure the work was constructed per plan.” Congratulations to the City of Pismo Beach for this great success!