The City of Belvedere declared a state of emergency this week after engineers informed city leaders that a seawall was in imminent danger of collapsing.

On Thursday, KRON4 spoke with the city manager who details the problem and the fix.

“When this started to fall apart, we, our public works department, took a look at it and said, ‘Wait. We’ve got a problem here,’ and that’s when we called our engineers in,” City Manager Craig Middleton said.

In a six month span, Belvedere City Manager Craig Middleton says the 100-year-old seawall protecting a levee at Beach and Peninsula roads has shifted almost 2 inches.

“Between the sidewalk and the seawall, you can start to see a little bit of an opening, and what’s happening is the top of the seawall is moving toward the water,” Middleton said.

And with a string of storms or a strong earthquake, he says the concern is that the seawall will fail.

And with sea level rising, the area could flood.

“The foundation at the bottom is being pushed inward and the top is being pushed outward, which means eventually the whole wall will topple into the water,” Middleton said.

Middleton says this initial project will cost about $550,000.

That’s money that’s already been accounted for in the city’s budget.

“We planned for it,” Middleton said. “We knew that there might be some need for some emergency money.”

And by the city declaring a state of emergency for the area earlier this week, those funds should be immediately available.

Once the city secures the proper permits, it’ll purchase the steel sheet pilings that will go into the ground and prop the wall up.

The danger zone spans about 100-to-120 feet.

“And eventually, we’ll be sheet piling the entirety of the wall which is about 800 feet,” Middleton said.

Middleton expects construction on the initial fix to start and finish in November.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:

>>MORE STORIES