Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Thursday, Sept. 5 @ 10:23 a.m. / Infrastructure, Local Government, Roads
One-Block Stretch of Pebble Beach Closed To Public As Emergency Repairs Begin; Crescent City Considers Accelerated Project Schedule Due To Tight Timeline
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
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Crescent City will issue a hard closure of Pebble Beach Drive between 7th and 8th streets as efforts to repair the scenic road ramp up this week.
The contractor tasked with building a micro-pile wall system to stabilize the bank is expected to start work today.
But the clock is ticking. The city has a mere 70 days to finish the emergency repairs in order to be reimbursed for it, according to City Manager Eric Wier. Crescent City’s autumn weather is also an unknown factor, he said.
“We’re talking to the contractor about trying to implement an accelerated schedule,” Wier told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday, “working as much as six days a week [for] 10-hour days to speed up the project.”
The Crescent City Council on Tuesday unanimously extended an emergency declaration they issued on July 15. The declaration was necessary for the city to receive about $6.68 million in Emergency Opening dollars that was authorized by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in June.
Those EO dollars will come to the city via the Federal Highways Administration as a reimbursement for the project, which shores up roughly 200 feet of road. The city also received about $7.9 million in state funding thanks to State Sen. Mike McGuire and Caltrans, which allowed it to overcome cash flow issues to move forward with the repairs.
According to Wier, however, that $7.9 million isn’t a loan. While those dollars are available to the city immediately and staff will request to be reimbursed via those Emergency Opening dollars, Wier said the goal is to use that reimbursement to stabilize the whole embankment from Sixth Street in the south to Preston Island in the north.
“Our goals are to open the road back up to and make sure we’re stabilizing the infrastructure [and] also see if we can have this be that permanent fix as well so we don’t have to get back in and do the work twice,” Wier told the Outpost. “The overall project is about 1,500 feet.”
Crescent City was forced to close Pebble Beach Drive between 7th and 8th streets when a storm-driven landslide compromised the road on Jan. 13 and 14. Wier issued a local emergency declaration on Jan. 19. The City Council ratified that emergency declaration on Jan. 22.
Though the landslide occurred in January, Newsom’s June 21 emergency declaration added Del Norte County to a list of other counties that had suffered extensive storm damage in March.
This allowed Crescent City to move forward with emergency repairs, which will consist of using vertical micro-piles and horizontal soil nails, along with Shotcrete — a type of concrete that's applied on a vertical face — to construct a retaining wall.
According to Wier, the project will also incorporate a drainage system that will divert water down the natural embankment.
Failing to address the groundwater issue could result in a build up of pressure on the wall, which could then lead to its failure, Wier said.
The city’s public works director, Dave Yeager, has been working with COWI, the project’s engineer of record, as well as Tidewater Contractors and their subcontractor Geostabilization International, or GSI.
Much of the work done at the landslide up until this week has been exploratory work to determine just how deep the bedrock is on that embankment, Wier said.
The city is also working with Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and Elk Valley Rancheria staff, who are monitoring the project. They’ve also been in contact with the California Coastal Commission since the overall Pebble Beach Drive Bank Stabilization Project would require a coastal development permit.
“We met with them on Friday to go over the project,” Wier said. “To have those open lines of dialog. When we do get through this [emergency project] in order to leave it in place as a permanent repair, we have to make sure we get those permits in place.”
On Tuesday, Wier told the City Council that the emergency repairs would also consist of constructing a cable rail barrier that will protect pedestrians and allow for an unobstructed view of the ocean. There will be a trail on the oceanside for pedestrians and bicyclists and the street itself will be reduced from 14 feet to 11 feet in both directions.
“It allows more real estate to be able to place this new design,” he said. “And then also with the narrower lanes, it’ll have a traffic calming effect.”
There will still be enough room for the bike lane and sidewalk on the street’s eastern side.
While work continues on the emergency project, however, the city will put up barricades, along with K rail and cyclone fencing to discourage vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore urged staff to “use some of our radio time” to make sure the public knows that the area will be a construction zone.
“We need to make sure the public understands that we’re trying to keep them safe and the workers safe,” he said. “If you’re trying to look because the public is wandering around, then you’re not looking at what you’re doing with a heavy piece of equipment.”
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