Santa Cruz, California – A half-mile jet sticking out into Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz Wharf offers hilarious walks past souvenir shops, rentals of fishing boats advertised as “Husband’s Day Care,” and kids laughing in the fatty sea lion holder below.
But at the end of the city-owned w head hanging from a fragile metal fence there is a small warning sign. It is pronounced “not lock out.” “Dangerous,” says another.
The sign was there for about six months. This is because a 180-foot wooden pier section collapsed into the ocean after being hit by towering waves during a storm of atmospheric rivers that inhaleed the atmosphere along the central coast.
City officials hope that signs, fencing, orange safety barriers and exposed wooden decks will disappear at the end of the w head. Construction is expected to begin this fall with partial construction repairs of $1 million, attracting more than 2 million visitors a year.
Part of Santa Cruz Wharf, which includes a public toilet building, collapsed into the Pacific Ocean in December 2024.
(San Francisco Chronicle / Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images)
“W is shaking us to see the damage to the end of the head,” said Tony Elliott, city’s director of parks and recreation. “White is 111 years old. I want to make sure I’m here for over 100 more years.”
On a sunny afternoon last month, Nick James, a 26-year-old vacationer from Christchurch, New Zealand, leaned on a railing about 30 feet from the edge of the pier and laughed at the sea lion who said it was just as loud as he was going home. He was surprised to learn that the end of his head had fallen.
“I thought it was over!” he said of the temporary fence a few feet away.
His friend Emily Lawson, 26, from Brisbane, Australia, gave the barrier a discerning look and said, “There are really no signs. I’m going to leave the last minute.”
Partial repairs, at least in part, become national funding, essentially cap and strengthen the broken edge of the pier. However, it remains unclear whether the parts that fell into the sea will be rebuilt. That section once contained a restaurant, a public toilet building, and several sea lion viewing holes. The deck opening was used to see the pinipedo spinning around with the cross beam below.
According to Elliott, a full restoration would cost around $14 million. City officials are applying for funds through the California Governor’s Office’s Office of Emergency Services. But it is unclear how much money will contribute to the states facing a $12 billion budget deficit, if any.
If the funds are approved, “it leads to many questions about how we think about restructuring in the context of climate change and sea level rise, and knowing that these storms have not disappeared, they could become more frequent or stronger over time.”
The uncertainty of Santa Cruz is tackling whether cities above and below the California coast will save their beloved, aging pier, hammered in recent years by increasingly unstable surfing of warm, fast sea oceans.
Due to structural damage maintained in winter storms over the past two years, at least 10 of the state’s dozens of coastal public piers have been closed for some or all of 2024.
Ventura Pier and Capi Tra Wharf in Santa Cruz County were damaged by a storm in early 2023 and reopened last year. Ventura restores cost over $3 million, while Capitola is about $10 million.
The end of the Cayucos Pier in San Luis Obispo County was closed to the public after it was damaged in the February 2024 storm.
The county is holding a construction bid until June 12th to remove damaged sections. Sean Cooper, assistant director of the San Luis Obispo County Parks and Recreation Department, told the Times in an email Wednesday.
Construction will cost around $250,000 and is likely to begin around late August, Cooper said. It is expected to take about two months.
At Santa Cruz, a complete restructuring of the state’s funding is being put into full restructuring, as “$14 million is not available to rebuild the w head end.”
In February, Gavin Newsom Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the Dec. 23 Storm Emergency Declaration, qualifying for state funding for up to 75% of repair costs under the California Disaster Assistance Act.
The city submitted its first damage assessment to the Emergency Services Department in March. Cal OES spokesman Ed Chapuis said in a statement to the Times that his office is considering city damage claims to determine funding eligibility.
Visitors watch sea lions relax on the support beams of Santa Cruz Wharf, which was damaged by winter storms in 2023 and 2024.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
In April, Santa Cruz City Council spent $100,000 to hire Long Beach-based engineering firm Moffat & Nichol and developed a plan for a $1 million partial repair.
Elliott said the first project would replace lost piles and decks to strengthen the end of the structure. About 1,100 square feet of the approximately 15,200 square feet of deck that fell into the sea will be rebuilt, according to urban planning documents.
According to Elliot, one sea lion’s viewing hole will also be rebuilt.
He said he hopes construction will begin in the end of summer or November, with the goal of reopening the pier by the beginning of next year.
Built in 1914, Santa Cruz Wharf was 2,745 feet for a long time during the winter storm. This was supported by over 4,400 piles. A 70-foot Douglas Fir beam was driven approximately 20 feet into the seabed.
The 2023 winter storm knocked out about 60 stakes, Elliott said. Structural instability forced the closure and demolition of a decades-old restaurant at the end of a pier known as dolphins.
The weakened pier was under construction due to the damage in 2023 when the December 2024 storm struck.
Santa Cruz Wharf’s planned partial repairs essentially hold back the broken end.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
According to Elliott, the city is becoming stronger in the fall and winter months, causing the oceans to be gradually forced to repair. This is because the California Coastal Commission will not allow work to interfere with the season of coastal bird nests, including ordinary seagulls.
Two men (city employees and contract engineers) were last standing in December when the pier collapsed. They suffered minor injuries. City employees were rescued by their son, who works in the city’s marine safety department, Elliott said.
Approximately 300 piles were destroyed, and several barnacle-covered beams appeared at Monterey Port 25 miles south.
Two large construction equipment – a compact loader called a skid steer and a 20-ton crane used to make use of mountains on the sea floor have fallen into the water. The skid steer has been removed, but the crane sits on the seabed below about 30 feet of water.
The city announced Friday that cranes and other wooden debris will be removed this weekend as part of a joint effort that involves the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alameda-based power engineering construction company.
Elliott said the crane would be removed by a larger crane above the barge.
“Good news about both skid steer and cranes: neither leaked, nor leaked fuel or oil,” Elliott said. “We want to put out the crane as soon as possible. It’s all weather dependent.”
Elliott said the structural engineers evaluated the remaining jetty and determined it was safe.
wHe said “a great economic factor for the community.” He said he owns around 20 small businesses, employing around 400 people. It is also a place where people can fish without permission, and some people use it for self-sufficiency fishing to feed their families, he said.
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Leo Dernz, a retired plumber at nearby Live Oak, stood near the damaged edge while watching sea lions and sailing ships. The 64-year-old was carrying his bike on his head while he waited for his car to be released from the repair shop.
He has so many fond memories of the pier. A visit from a childhood. They bring his three cultivated daughters as children and laugh and laugh as they peer into the sea lion’s view hole and bark like bluebbery creatures.
Deruntz said he was “devastated in a way” to see his beloved pier being torn apart and hoping it would be completely rebuilt. However, he was also surprised by the power of the sea during the storm.
“The strength – you have to respect that,” he said.
Nodding towards the exposed, damaged wooden deck, Dernz became philosophical.
“This is an example of what’s not promised,” he said. “Everything you think is stable in life can collapse above you. So you’d better go out and enjoy life.”
Times staff writer Noah Hagerty contributed to this report.
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