Pier’s Timber Pilings No Match for Mother Nature, Says Consultant

VENTURA — Powerful winter waves are occurring with greater frequency and force, and as a result the city should look hard at repairing the wave-battered Ventura Pier with stronger materials, a report by a Bay Area engineer has concluded.

The report by pier consultant Charles Rauw of Martinez found that the December storm that knocked out more than 400 feet of the pier was not a catastrophic event, but the kind of wave action that occurs every five years.

“The bottom line is we had big waves,” city engineer Rick Raives said of the report. “What does that mean to us? I am not sure. It probably means we ought to be building a stronger pier.”

The city hired the consultant a few days after the storm demolished the seaward end of the century-old timber pier, which at 1,958 feet was considered the longest wooden pier in the state. Rauw was paid $19,000 to determine what caused the collapse of the structure.

His 27-page damage assessment concluded that massive waves with a force of 15 tons smashed into the pier, possibly washing over the deck and bracings.

The report also said old timber piles were “not strong enough to withstand the waves forces.”

And small supports at the pier’s end--supports replaced after being knocked out during past storms--were not embedded deeply enough in the ocean floor to withstand the force of the waves.

“Given the force and frequency of the waves, the aging and weakening older timbers, and the smaller wooden replacement piles, it was inevitable that the pier would fail,” Raives wrote in his summary of the consultant’s report.

The report, which will soon be followed by a separate $58,000 study on how best to repair the structure, confirmed what many residents and city officials have said since the pier was broken.

“I think there comes a point when we’ve been knocked down for the umpteenth time when we say, is there something we can do to make it stronger?” Councilman Jim Friedman asked.

Given the pier’s vulnerability to wave damage, engineers and some city leaders say the structure should be reinforced with steel or concrete supports to better withstand future storms.

“We really should be looking at stronger materials,” Raives said.

When the city agreed to take over maintenance of the pier from the state a few years ago, a citizens’ committee voted against repairing the deteriorating structure with steel or concrete.

Wood, they agreed, would be more aesthetically pleasing.

But since the $3-million renovation project was completed in 1992, the pier has been badly battered by three winter storms.

In December 1994, the pier lost a number of timber piles to high seas that washed out the wooden supports. Subsequent storms in January and February also resulted in lost piles--with a total of 60 knocked out in the storm season.

On Dec. 13, 1995, more than 400 feet of the pier was washed away after 18- to 20-foot waves clobbered its seaward end.

The damage is estimated at $2.5 million and the city’s insurance policy is expected to pay for repairs. The second phase of the study will evaluate how the city can best spend that money: reinforcing the existing structure with stronger materials or replacing the lost portion of the pier with wood pilings.