Crescent City Public Works Director Dave Yeager talks to Coastal Commissioners about the slide on Pebble Beach Drive at their visit in May. | File photo: Jessica C. Andrews

Crescent City councilors on Monday gave their city manager the emergency resolution he needed to move forward with a project to reopen Pebble Beach Drive.

The Council’s emergency declaration will allow City Manager Eric Wier to execute the necessary contracts for fixing storm damage on the scenic drive between 7th and 8th streets without having to go through a standard bidding process.

Crescent City staff submitted a disaster assistance fund application for $6.8 million in emergency opening dollars. According to Wier, though it’s state funding, it still has to come to the city via the Federal Highways Administration.

Those funds are now available to the city due to an emergency proclamation California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued for Del Norte County in June.

“The emergency work is reimbursed at 100 percent, however, it’s still through Federal Highways, so it still does take that act of Congress to allocate the money,” Wier said. “Our timeline started in March. They give you 270 days, or nine months. We were notified on June 21. That leaves us about six months, or toward the end of November, to get it done.”

A 75-foot section of bluff alongside Pebble Beach Drive gave way on Jan. 14 due to a winter rainstorm, undermining the bike lane on the ocean side of the road. Crescent City staff blocked off that stretch of road to pedestrians and vehicular traffic.

Another rainstorm on Jan. 31 made the slide worse, prompting staff to extend the street closure area to Pebble Beach Drive’s intersection with 8th Street.

Moving forward on the emergency project is also contingent upon the Federal Highways Administration approving the city’s damage assessment form, Wier said. The city is also working with State Sen. Mike McGuire and with Caltrans on coming up with a financing plan to address cash flow challenges the city continues to experience.

“It would almost have to be some sort of a bridge loan [using] state money to complete the project up front and then submit it to Federal Highways for reimbursement,” Wier told the Outpost last week. “And that reimbursement money would go back to make the state whole.”

On Monday, Wier said staff is also working with engineers to incorporate the emergency repair into the city’s larger Pebble Beach Drive Bank Stabilization Project.

This project stems from storms that occurred in December 2016 and would shore up roughly 1,500 feet of coastline between Sixth Street and Preston Island.

City staff are working on a final design to submit to the California Coastal Commission, Wier said. He mentioned the Coastal Commission’s visit to Crescent City in May, saying they met with Mayor Blake Inscore, Councilwoman Kelly Schellong and Public Works Director Dave Yeager and toured the slide area on Pebble Beach Drive.

“We’re developing a good relationship with Coastal staff in trying to work with us,” Wier told councilors. “They see the need for this project.”

The Pebble Beach Drive Bank Stabilization Project is expected to cost $32 million. The Federal Highways Administration has already authorized funding through its Advanced Construction program, but Crescent City would have to pay for the project up front and then seek reimbursement through Congress.

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