Construction started on the staircase last year, replacing the original one built in the 1940s.
Look around San Diego on any given day and you'll see a lot of aging infrastructure that the city or county doesn't the capacity or cash to keep up with.
In few other places is this more evident than the beaches, where a harsh environment and time have take a toll on aging bathrooms, decrepit staircases and perilous piers, which are not the warm welcome you're searching for at the strand.
This is probably why neighbors and visitors to Point Loma were delighted recently to learn that the stairs heading down to Bermuda Beach — a pocket beach at the foot of Bermuda Avenue near the start of Sunset Cliffs — have finally reopened, nearly a decade after powerful winter storms took their toll.
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“The original staircase, which was constructed in the 1940s, collapsed due to decades of exposure to the harsh coastal environment," San Diego City Tyler Becker told NBC 7 via email on Monday. "The top landing and backfill eroded, concrete material broke down due to natural weathering and pieces of reinforcement corroded.”
In a possible harbinger of things to come (the latest cost projection for a replacement for the out-of-commission Ocean Beach Pier is $170-$190 million), the price tag of the three-flight staircase was $3.65 million.
“The new staircase has a similar alignment to the original stairs and is constructed on a concrete block for the first flight, followed by cast-in-drilled-hole piles for the two upper flights," Becker said. "The entire staircase is made of high-strength concrete and epoxy-coated rebars for more durability and less maintenance. The staircase was designed to be independent of the existing seawall while also accounting for sea-level rise.”
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The cost of replacing the OB Pier is dependent, of course, upon its final design and when the project is begun.
"… the estimated total project cost … includes everything completed so far for the community engagement process all the way through the end of construction," Becker told NBC 7 on Monday. "Currently, $8.4 million in state funding is designated for the project."
