Highway 1 trail will need sea level protection (BTW so will Highway 1), El Granada

Memo to San Mateo County:  Please don't abandoned Pacifica infrastructure, we have trails too (along with roads, utilities, commerce, and people who live in houses).

The Daily Journal/Samantha Weigel, 7/13/16. "County to spend $2.6 million on erosion at Mirada Road: Officials finish shoreline protection project at Surfer's Beach."

Surfer's Beach trail
is next to Highway 1

Pacifica has a road and
homes in back of these rocks

"County officials allocated $2.6 million toward repairing a coastside road that was compromised during a particularly harsh beating by winter’s El Niño-fueled King Tides, just as they prepare to finalize another shoreline protection project at a popular beach.

Improvements to the California Coastal Trail along Surfer’s Beach just south of Pillar Point Harbor, a project that will also protect Highway 1 from sea level rise, is about to culminate next month and county officials are looking toward repairing another strip of coast further south at Mirada Road.

While much attention is paid to Bayside areas where sea level rise is projected to affect multi-billion-dollar tech companies as well as public infrastructure like wastewater treatment plants and airports, county Supervisor Don Horsley said it’s critical to protect the coastside as well. ....  Along Mirada Road road are numerous residences, a boutique hotel and critical public utility lines, Horsley said, noting officials have considered how to improve the road for nearly four years.

Save Sharp Park, and
save our coastal civilization

....  County Public Works Director Jim Porter noted officials are studying various adaptation projects that will protect against coastal erosion and last winter’s storms highlighted needs. “The Office of Sustainability has done a bunch of work looking at some of the assets that are on the shoreline and what options there are for protecting them. At this point, Mirada Road is the one that concerns us the most because we did have damage there last winter and there are utilities in the road,” Porter said. The main concern is a sewer line and, while not owned by the county, the environmental consequences of having the line damaged could be detrimental, Porter said.
 ....  This last winter was particularly harsh and Pacifica perhaps took one of the most significant beatings by powerful tides that damaged public property and forced numerous residents to evacuate their homes after a cliffside apartment building was declared uninhabitable. Horsley remarked on Pacifica’s harsh winter and noted in some areas a managed retreat — or the planned abandonment of threatened areas — may be a necessary adaptation strategy. ....  ... “Eventually sea level rise may overtop [these areas], but in the meantime, I think it behooves us to do everything we can to protect those individuals.”  Read article. 

Note photographs. Left: Trail and erosion from Caltrans, Surfer's Beach Project.  Right top, rocks by John Green/Bay Area News Group from Santa Cruiz Sentinel, 2/18/16; big waves by Agrin  from Weather Underground, 1/7/08. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh