The Berkeley Pier faces some major issues of structural deterioration which may be costly to fix, City of Berkeley staff told the Berkeley Parks and Waterfront Commission Wednesday night, July 8, 2015.

Discussion of the Pier was not a scheduled item on the agenda, but it came up when one Commissioner asked Parks and Recreation Director Scott Ferris about the status of a planned project to improve disabled accessibility at the Pier.

Ferris said that the project was on hold because of the recent discovery of concrete deterioration on the underside of the pier. He emphasized that only a preliminary engineering evaluation had been made, and a full study and report would be needed.

Waterfront staffer Roger Miller explained that the pier is composed of concrete pilings, which seem to be in good shape, with 15 foot long concrete slabs between them forming the pier deck.

On the underside of the slabs, concrete has spalled off, leaving some of the metal rebar exposed. The rebar is deteriorating and, in some places, apparently broken. There are two layers of horizontal rebar in the slabs, but if the lower one is compromised, it has implications for the structural strength of the deck slabs.

As a result, City staff decided not to drive heavy trucks on the Pier to set up for the annual Berkeley Fourth of July display this year. Instead, the City rented a barge to launch the fireworks, at a cost of $6,000.

Miller said that City records show that in 1984 the bottoms of the pier slabs were repaired with gunnite sprayed to replace deteriorating concrete and cover the rebar. "That repair has now flaked off again", Miller said. The 1984 repairs cost half a million dollars, Miller said.

Ferris told the Commission that a new engineering study would be made of the pier's structural stability, but the City has no money currently budgeted if major structural repairs to the pier are required. "We're waiting on further engineering reports before the determination on how to proceed."

The Berkeley Pier is popular with strollers, sightseers, and fishermen. Extending some 3,000 feet into the Bay from the west side of the Berkeley Marina, it is a remnant of a 3.5 mile long car ferry pier built in 1926. Much of that original pier is now covered by the landfill of the Marina, while the westernmost sections of the Pier are not useable and cut off from the functional section.

The Berkeley Pier was constructed by the Golden Gate Ferry Company and the wide concrete deck originally carried two lanes of traffic to car ferries which docked at the far end, and connected with the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. The auto ferries ran from 1927 to 1939. The City subsequently acquired the Pier.