Pacifica construction crews work through weekend in effort to stabilize damaged municipal pier

The City of Pacifica was working throughout the weekend to try to stabilize its damaged municipal pier. Last week, an iconic cafe was demolished at the base of the structure, and on Sunday, some residents were wondering if excavation work three weeks ago may have contributed to the pier's collapse.

The Pacifica Pier has existed since 1973, but with the way it has deteriorated in the past few days, it looks like it may not be there for long.

"All the erosion stuff, it's just going to happen," said resident Howard Duff. "I don't know how long they expected it to last. All the seawater. You can just tell all the little structures are just rusting out."

Duff walked over to watch the activity on Sunday, as the city scrambled in a five-day emergency attempt to try to keep the pier's sagging concrete landing from falling into the sea.  Heavy equipment crews were digging up rip-rap boulders from under the sand to use in the operation.

"Yeah, I asked the guy," said Duff.  "They're mining stones and rocks from all along this area, to bring down over there, toward the pier, the old pier.  Probably shore it up, I don't know. But they're mining rocks."

The plan is to pile the boulders against the failing structure to protect it from the crashing waves. Work crews will resume operations Monday at 3 a.m. to take advantage of the hours of lowest tide.  The pier was able to survive Saturday's King Tide, which the National Weather Service said was the highest Summer wave levels on record.  But it has clearly gotten worse since Wednesday, when the old Chit Chat Cafe was demolished.  

"Obviously, nature always dominates over construction," said Elizabeth Zarubin, visiting from Portland, Oregon. "So, maybe we could have looked at repairing or keeping on top of it more, earlier.  But, you know, with all the rust in that metal and, you know, concrete deteriorates.  So, we made some choices, didn't we?"

Many are confused about why the pier would begin cracking during the relatively calm seas last week.  But about a week or two before that, Saul and Jeannie Villegas say they watched as another excavator was taking protective boulders away from the base of the structure.

"They were removing those boulders from the base of the pier," said Saul.  "And a lot of times the excavator couldn't grab hold and they would drop back onto the ground, or sometimes they would come up with a big scoop of sand, you know?  But at the very base of the thing, that's where the excavator was taking big boulders out of there.  

Jeannie said they were confused by what they were seeing and it gave them an uneasy feeling.

"It just looks like you're just weakening the pier by doing this," she said.  "And, one, you're taking rocks out from under it.  You're moving them to wherever you decide to move them.  They're always falling, and so that's causing a problem.  And just the vibration, too, of these cranes right next to it."

Whether what the Villegas' saw had any impact on the destruction is unknown.  The city did not respond to our requests for comment on Sunday.  But so far, they say they are still evaluating the situation and weighing their options.  The cost of repairs may be daunting for a small city, but Jeannie said she hopes the emergency effort to protect the pier is an indication that they are at least willing to try to save it.

"I think they can fix it, I really do," she said. "I think we do things like fly people to the moon. You can fix something like that. Just get the right people. I don't think we're asking a lot."