Posted on November 18, 2024
Repair work includes the replacement of two piles that were swept out to sea in years past.
Battered by storms but still in good condition, the Imperial Beach Pier will next week receive two missing piles as a construction crew begins $2.6 million in repairs to ensure that California’s southernmost pier can remain standing for decades to come.
Reyes Construction Inc., which was hired by the Port of the San Diego last October, will begin the maintenance project on Monday.
The most labor-intensive fixes are scheduled to take place Wednesday through Friday, weather permitting. The pier will be fully closed to the public on those days as crews install two timber piles with the help of a helicopter for positioning.
The repair work will extend through the summer of 2025, with only partial pier closures expected for most of the repairs. Future deck board replacement work and utility piping work may, however, require temporary full pier closures, the port said in a press release.
First constructed in the 1960s and rebuilt in the 1980s, the nearly 1,500-foot-long pier in Imperial Beach has been managed by the Port of San Diego since 1991.
The agency, in 2021 and 2022, spent millions on aesthetic improvements to the city’s waterfront attraction, including adding an artistic shade structure and distance markers. The pier’s three structures — the Tin Fish Restaurant, the lifeguard tower and public bathrooms — were also repainted and repaired.
Now, the agency is embarking on a list of corrective and preventative maintenance needs, most of which were first identified in a 2018 conditions assessment report.
Last year, the port hired Reyes Construction to repair the utility piping underneath the pier, replace two piles that have been swept out to sea over the years and replace corroded switch boards in the pier’s electrical room. Since then, the firm has been working to secure project materials with supply chain lags impacting the timeline.
The replacement piles in question, which arrived last week, are redundant in nature, said Jesus Puebla, an engineering and construction project manager with the port.
In September 2021, the Imperial Beach Pier was closed for a five days after a piling broke off and was seen floating in the ocean. However, the agency determined at the time that the missing piling did not affect the structural integrity of the pier.
The pier’s fix-it list also expanded in scope on Wednesday, when the Board of Port Commissioners unanimously agreed to increase the contract budget with Reyes by nearly $1 million for a total of $2.6 million. The change is meant to address more recent storm-related deterioration, identified during the construction preparation period.
Specifically, the board authorized additional preventive maintenance, including removing and replacing pile connection hardware in the surf zone to preserve the steel from corrosion and installing a new water utility line to support the restaurant, Puebla said.
Overall, the pier remains in good condition, he said.
“With routine maintenance, we’re expecting somewhere around a 20- to 30-year (remaining) lifespan,” Puebla said. “As long as the port continues to stick to its goal of preserving this pier for the community, then we’ll continue to do these targeted repairs and maintenance, which will continue to preserve and extend the pier’s life as much as possible.”
