Visitors to lush Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort will have to wait a little longer before they can once again climb the historic lighthouse.

Park officials expect the 10-story-tall Hunting Island Light Station to reopen in late January after more than a year of fund raising and repairs.

The lighthouse is the centerpiece of the popular park, which draws 1 million visitors a year.

Officials had expected the work to be completed this fall. But additional repairs were needed to the beacon’s cast-iron steps, catwalk and rails.

“It has required a little more work than we originally thought,” assistant park manager Ashley Berry said.

For 70 years, visitors to the barrier island climbed 132 feet to the lighthouse’s catwalk for one of the most spectacular views on South Carolina’s coast.

But time, salt-tinged air and millions of visitors wore thin the 167 steps of the spiral iron staircase.

The steps were designed to have a maximum of 1 million footsteps on them, Berry said. The parks department estimates the number of footsteps at 6.5 million.

Six steps cracked last year, prompting the state to close the lighthouse to the public for the first time since 1933, when it opened.

For months, workers have been repairing the steps in a $108,000 project.

They are installing steel tubes under the steps to support them. The supports are anchored to the brick-and-iron superstructure.

Each flight follows the same spiral pattern but requires different-sized pieces. The parts were fabricated off site and assembled like a puzzle.

A thin piece of rubber was installed between the step and the brace to eliminate noise.

The braces are silver while the steps are black to maintain historical integrity. Additions and repairs are left obvious so they won’t be mistaken as part of the original structure, Berry said.

Roberta Gunderson, president of Friends of Hunting Island, said the group is planning a celebration for the reopening. A ribbon cutting and reception will be held, “and maybe something more festive,” she said.

“People come from far away, and when they find out the lighthouse is closed, some just turn away at the gate, disappointed,” Gunderson said. “People have been waiting so long for it to reopen again that we want to do something special.”