SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The City of San Diego is close to completing a project that will protect a popular Ocean Beach walking path from erosion.

People who live along Orchard Avenue say the pathway that goes along the coast has been falling apart in the past few years, as tidal surges wear away the concrete.

"It was falling apart. The sidewalk's coming up, you could have tripped," says Tony Nieves, who lives on the corner nearby. "It's nice to see something done about it."

Over the winter, the City started construction on a $333,000 project to rebuild the walkway and add break rocks and rip rap to protect it. It's part of a bigger plan to revitalize staircases and walkways along the coast to improve beach access, which the city started working on in 2008.

Rainy, windy weather delayed the Orchard Avenue part of the project, which was supposed to be completed by the start of spring.

This past week, the city installed large, man-made rocks to the coast to break up waves. They also added green metal cages around them, leading people to fear they'll get so big they may block views.

"I come down here most nights that I'm not working, just to catch the sunset," says Brittany Hagedorn. "Living a block away makes it easy."

In a statement, the City told 10News the boulders will get another layer of concrete above the cages and they hope to have the project completed before Memorial Day Weekend.

In the meantime, people who live nearby will have to wait to use the path again.

The full statement from the City of San Diego is below:

"The man made boulders being constructed are part of the project to reconstruct the beach access walkway at Orchard Ave. The boulders are intended to protect the newly-installed sidewalk, because this section of sidewalk has previously been seriously damaged by tidal surges. After the cages are complete, the boulders will be covered in concrete so as to blend in with the surrounding rip rap. We expect that the boulders will be completed next week, weather permitting."