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ChronicleWatch
ChronicleWatch: Working for a Better Bay Area
1,500 DAYS
Old Martinez fishing pier finally to be put out of its misery - others also
suffering
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 28, 2007
This old fishing pier in Martinez has decrepit counterpar...
It appears that the end is near for the crumbling, mangled, wooden Martinez
fishing pier - 15 years after city officials, fishermen and preservationists
began negotiating over its fate.
Despite a push by some preservationists and fishermen to have it restored,
the pier will probably be torn down by December. The city simply can't afford
the cost of repairs and maintenance.
"We hope to award a demolition contract on Oct. 17," City Manager Don
Blubaugh said. "Work should begin shortly thereafter and be completed by Dec.
31 at the latest."
The pier, which has been on ChronicleWatch for 1,500 days, was severely
damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and then by an arson fire in the
early 1990s. Originally built in 1912 and expanded in the 1920s, its wooden
pilings are rotting. It has been closed for more than a decade while the city
debated its fate and then tried to come up with the money to tear it down and
dispose of its remains.
The old fishing pier's deterioration highlights a problem seen throughout the
Bay Area - and an often-recurring theme in ChronicleWatch: Old fishing piers
cost too much to repair, restore or maintain. These wooden piers were built
before such projects needed environmental studies or impact reports. But now
cities need the approval of numerous agencies to change or demolish an old
pier. And the cost of modernizing a pier is often prohibitive.
In the past five years, ChronicleWatch has covered problems with several
piers in San Francisco as well as old fishing docks in San Leandro, Berkeley
and San Mateo. Whether a city or county decides to raze a pier or restore it,
the project is often delayed because of a struggle over where the agency
should spend its money.
The Martinez pier was built as a dock for an old auto ferry to and from
Benicia and at its peak carried thousands of cars a year.
But the structure fell on hard times.
Tipster Herb Goldblum contacted ChronicleWatch about the skewed pilings,
crumbled asphalt, dangling railings and sunken sections of pier in 2003.
Since then, the pier has continued to sink. Some of its support pilings are
leaning far askew, as if pushed by a giant hand.
Some fishermen and preservationists originally hoped the older pier would be
restored, but the city balked at the cost. Martinez officials pointed to a
newer pier for fishermen and sightseers just a few hundred feet away.
City officials spent years waiting for necessary permits from multiple state
and federal agencies to tear down the pier. The permits finally arrived in
2005, but by then, with the passage of time, the work had gotten more
expensive and city officials no longer could afford to complete the job.
On Sept. 20, Martinez received a $500,000 grant from Bay Conservation and
Development Commission and the next day invited bids from contractors.
"I remember my family walking on that pier ever since when I was a little
child," said preservationist Joseph Rux. "I feel very sad about it being
closed."
Two Martinez fishermen interviewed Thursday at the newer dock said they feel
no nostalgia for the old pier.
"They need to either tear it down or do something else with it, maybe salvage
some of it," Roy Edwards said.
"I remember when you could walk out on that old pier, and it would have been
great if they kept it," said his brother Jim. "But it's too late. It's an
eyesore now. Rip it out."
Other Bay Area agencies have grappled with similar problems.
In San Francisco, the public piers along the Embarcadero are considered by
many to be the city's front porch. Last year, city officials opened Pier 14
to the public as part of a $2.4 million project and made improvements to the
Hyde Street Pier.
At Lake Merced, a fishing pier dedicated to slain San Francisco police
Officer Douglas Gibbs, an issue ChronicleWatch tracked in 2003-04, will
remain closed indefinitely because other projects have priority, said parks
spokeswoman Rose Dennis.
In San Leandro, the city gave up on a smaller, older pier and tore it down.
Instead, the city focused its efforts - and limited funds - on renovating a
44-year-old, 200-foot-long fishing pier at Marina Park that reopened last
year.
In 2004, San Mateo County officials put together a plan to renovate and
reopen the long-closed pier that runs just south of the San Mateo/Hayward
Bridge. But the project was stalled by a combination of concerns by the
California Highway Patrol that terrorists could use the pier to attack the
bridge and a lack of enthusiasm by officials in nearby Foster City, county
parks planner Sam Herzberg said.
"A project like renovating an old pier just gets more expensive and more
complicated over time," Herzberg said. "Preservation is important but
difficult."
E-mail Jim Zamora at jzamora@sfchronicle.com. |
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