Why the Belmont Pool and Davies Launch Look Quiet From the Sidewalk This Winter

What is going on behind the construction fence at the old Belmont Plaza Pool site? If you walk past Olympic Plaza in November, you see trailers, wooden power poles and a closed street. You do not see anything that looks like a pool. A mile and a half east, the Davies Boat Launch on East Marina Drive has been shut since late April, and from the sidewalk it doesn't look much different.

The city's own monthly reports explain why. Both projects are in the stage where the crews are dealing with the bay itself: soft ground, groundwater, and tides that come in higher than planned. That work happens underground and at the waterline, where nobody walking by can see it. Most of what the eastern waterfront will look like in 2028 is being settled this season, in places you can't see from the walk.

The pool site is mostly underground right now

The Belmont Beach and Aquatics Center is a $105 million project. Long Beach Post reported in May that crews started in April by tearing out the old kiddie pool to clear room for materials. Construction is scheduled to finish by spring 2028, a few months before the Olympics. No Olympic event will use the pool itself. Open-water swimming, sailing and rowing will be held nearby.

The city's project updates show what the contractor, Bernards Bros. Inc., has done since summer, one month at a time:

1. August 2026. Crews finished stabilizing the ground under the future building areas with vibro-stone columns so heavy equipment could work on the site. Demolishing the small pools uncovered transite pipe that earlier site checks could not reach. That needed an air-quality approval before removal could continue.
2. September 2026. A drill rig and crane put in more than 100 continuous flight auger piles. These piles hold the pools up and also keep them from being pushed upward. Because the drilling disturbs soil, tribal, archaeological and paleontological monitors were on site, as the project's Coastal Development Permit requires.
3. October 2026. Crews began drilling dewatering wells around the edges of the deep excavation areas. They also ran temporary discharge piping to the catch basins in the Belmont Pier parking lot and set up temporary ramps so people on the sidewalk can step over the pipes.

"Upward" is the key word in the September entry. The pools are being built into wet ground right beside the bay, and the piles are there partly to keep the structure from floating. The dewatering wells come next. Their job is to pump groundwater out of the deep excavation so crews can work in it. That's why there is new piping running toward the pier lot.

The Olympic Plaza closure has the same cause. The October update says the street closure was posted to run into November so crews can finish the underground ductbank, pull the cable and switch on the site's temporary transformer. Southern California Edison temporary power is expected by late November. Long Beach Utilities has also been replacing gas mains and service lines on Olympic Plaza Drive and nearby streets. That work is outside the pool site, but some of it serves the new facility.

The tide is setting the schedule at both sites

Both projects mentioned water in their October updates.

At the pool site, the city says the area was not affected by recent storm surge from the hurricanes or by the Kelvin wave that pushed into the bay. It also says crews are watching for, and preparing for, the coming King tides and the predicted El Niño pattern. With dewatering about to start, that matters. Higher water in the bay means more groundwater under the site.

At Davies, the city's project page says tides higher than expected caused "significant challenges" in finishing the light-pole foundations on the water side. The contractor still expected to finish that foundation work within the month. Curb and gutter work comes after the foundations, and sidewalks come after that.

Nobody at either site can schedule around the bay. Each step waits on the one before it, and the first step at each site depends on the water level.

Davies has been closed since April 27, and this month is a turning point

The Davies Boat Launch sits at 6204 E. Marina Dr. Its parking lot and launch access closed on April 27, 2026. They will stay closed until the project is finished, which the city is targeting for early 2027. The project was designed and permitted from spring 2019 through summer 2025, then bid and awarded over the following winter.

Most of the work so far has been demolition and digging. In June, crews took out the upper 30-foot section of the concrete launch ramp. They also rebuilt the revetment on the south side of the site with imported rock and concrete saved from the demolition. By September, most of the work outside the main site was done.

November is when new pieces start showing up. The precast panels and beams were on schedule to arrive this month, and the prefabricated restrooms were scheduled for mid-November. The finished facility is planned to include:

• A replacement launch ramp
• Repaved and restriped parking with better lighting
• A new restroom building
• A new entrance gate and kiosk
• A boat washing station with a token machine
• A fish cleaning station
• EV charging stations
• Accessibility improvements to parking and walkways

The city lists these other places to launch while Davies is closed:

The full list is on the city's launch ramps page. For anyone towing a boat from the Marina Drive side, Marine Stadium is the closest ramp, so check its event calendar before you go.

Both projects are paid for out of the same fund

Davies is funded by Tidelands funds, Marina funds and grants from the state Division of Boating and Waterways. According to Long Beach Post, about $77 million of the pool's budget comes from the city's Tidelands Fund, which relies on oil revenue. The other $28 million is expected from sponsorships, small grants and a $24.5 million bond.

That bond is the part of the story that reaches the parking lots around Alamitos Bay. In January the city proposed charging $2 an hour at about 1,800 marina parking spaces that were free at the time. By the city's estimate, if at least a fifth of those spaces were in use at any given time, the meters would bring in $3 million a year to help repay the debt. The City Council approved the project's $105 million spending plan on January 20, 2026. The bond itself needed a separate approval later.

In late May, a Long Beach Public Works spokesperson told Long Beach Post the city would count cars and turnover along the marina through the summer, hold community meetings in late summer, and then send a parking management proposal to the California Coastal Commission for a permit. The same article said neighborhood groups, associations and members of the Long Beach Marine Advisory Commission were still waiting for a meeting. As of that May report, the meters were a proposal that still needed Council approval and a Coastal Commission permit.

The city has tried paid parking at the marina before. A 2022 effort was rejected by the Marine Advisory Commission that same year, after concerns that it would unfairly tax people who use the waterfront. So the future of the marina lots depends on the pool's financing as much as on anything happening at the marina itself.

What shows up above ground, and when

Here are the two projects side by side. Each one's current phase is taken from its October city update:

Davies will be done first. Once the restrooms and precast pieces are in, the work there moves to curbs, sidewalks and the visible finishing touches. The pool has a longer road. Once the excavation is dry, the city plans a 50-meter Olympic pool with spectator bleachers, a movable bulkhead and four springboards. It also plans a shallow therapy and learning pool, spray zones, and a multi-use building with lockers, offices and changing rooms. In a statement reported by Long Beach Post, Mayor Rex Richardson called the groundbreaking "a historic step forward in delivering a facility that reflects the pride, history and future of Long Beach."

The city posts a new update at belmontpool.com and on the Davies project page each month. The December entries should show whether the pool site has power and whether the Davies restrooms arrived on schedule.

Changes to the waterfront change how people use the blocks around it, from where they park to where they launch a boat to which walks they take. If you live near Olympic Plaza or Marina Drive and want to talk about what these projects could mean for your street, Kimberly Kelly follows the eastern waterfront closely and is glad to help. Let's Connect.