Quick Take
Work is underway on Capitola Wharf repairs, and the city anticipates that it will be ready for reopening by the end of summer 2024. Additionally, a citizen-led project has raised more than $300,000 for enhancements to the wharf, which is undergoing both long-overdue updates and repairs to damage suffered in last winter's storms.
The Capitola Wharf continues to move toward a summer 2024 reopening, and the citizen-led Capitola Wharf Enhancement Project has already raised more than $300,000 for various additions to the soon-to-be revitalized wharf.
After storm surge took out a large middle section of the wharf in January, the City of Capitola signed a nearly $8 million contract with Southern California-based Cushman Contracting Corporation to head the project, which is a combination of work both in response to storm damage and to address already known infrastructure issues.
The money is from a mix of federal and state funding, Capitola’s general fund and revenue from the city’s 2016 Measure F, which extended what was initially a quarter-cent sales tax through at least 2026. Capitola Public Works Director Jessica Kahn added that the city received another $500,000 from the state of California as part of the state budget passed in June.
The broken deck is the most severe and visible damage, rendering the wharf almost completely inaccessible. That section is narrower than the rest of the wharf, and part of the project involves widening it from 20 feet to 36 feet. Crews will strengthen the newly widened section with additional, fiberglass pilings to add more resiliency and strength to the pier.
Crews began at the base of the wharf in late September, replacing damaged pilings and installing the new pilings for the widened section of wharf, and are slowly working their way out until they reach the disconnected section offshore.
“It’s a mix of repair work — some related to the storm, some that we knew would have to be repaired prior to the storm, and the widening work,” said Kahn.
She added that even before the major storm damage, structural updates had been a long time coming. On top of the structural fixes, the wharf will get new restroom facilities at both its head and base.
“The last time the wharf was substantially reconstructed was in the 1980s,” Kahn said. “The city had done some piling replacements in 2021, but we’ve known of other components that needed to be addressed because of old age.”
But beyond the work that the city is overseeing, a group of residents raising private donations for wharf enhancements — called the Capitola Wharf Enhancement Project — is aiming to bring vibrancy to the repaired wharf. That includes new benches, tables, improved viewing stations and public art. Kahn said the group has “definitely surpassed its initial fundraising goal.”
Gerry Jensen, chair of the Capitola Wharf Enhancement Project, said the group has raised about $336,000, well above its minimum $250,000 target. He said that things like tables and viewing stations will be accessible under Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and that the group hopes to fund an interactive component for children to educate them about local marine life.
“We’re trying to enhance the family feel and make it all accessible to everyone,” he said.
Jensen said the fundraising period closes Jan. 15, and the group is confident it will exceed the $350,000 high bound of its fundraising target.
“They really saw the reaction from the community and how sad people were about the damage and wharf closure,” said Kahn. “The project really came from that response, and they wanted to contribute something to this project.”
It might be an El Niño year, but so far, crews haven’t run into any weather issues. Kahn said inclement weather is likely the only thing keeping the project from wrapping up by the end of summer 2024: “It’s all going really well, and we haven’t run into anything we didn’t anticipate.”
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