Crews start to repair Pacifica pier so it won't collapse into Pacific Ocean

From Pacifica City leaders about the plan to temporarily stabilize the Pacifica Pier ahead of what is expected to be a very rainy winter. Want to go out to KTVU's Allie Rasmus, who's there with the details. Allie? Yeah, we just got an overview of the work that's going to be happening here in Pacifica over the next several days and the next several weeks. Now, behind me is the Pacifica Pier, and you see that section of the pier that is sinking into the shoreline? Well, starting next week, construction crews are going to be drilling giant piles or posts into the ground around it to lift that sagging part of the pier back up. But before they can do that, they need to assemble not just one, but two massive cranes, one of which is 400 tons. And that's the work that is happening here today, getting all the equipment in place today so that they can start to assemble those cranes over the next several days. 6.30 this morning, we watched as part of one of those massive cranes was slowly hauled into the street in front of the pier, Beach Boulevard, which is closed to the public. There are 20 more truckloads, we're told, of equipment that are going to be hauled here the same way today and tomorrow. Then possibly as early as Monday, work will begin on a temporary fix to keep the pier from completely collapsing into the ocean this winter. Now, we spoke with the city manager and And he cautioned that this is not a permanent fix of the pier that they are doing. And even after it's done, it does not mean the pier will be safe and open to the public again. That all is unclear. The city manager says this emergency work is needed to prevent a complete collapse. The Pacifica Pier is a local and regional asset for recreation and also for access to the coast. And if we don't do this, then we run the risk of further deterioration during the winter storms, which has a negative effect both on our infrastructure and the environment. I walk out here every day, and it's nice to see some activity going on. I know it's going to cost a lot of money. I don't know if they have enough for it, so it would be nice to save the pier. now again the city manager says the city simply does not know if they even can save the pier the work they're doing is to prevent it from collapsing and causing other additional problems there's a lot of important infrastructure in the street beach boulevard right next to the pier wastewater water and other utilities are located underground so if the pier collapses all of that infrastructure and the roads could be heavily damaged and that would create an even bigger problem so this temporary fix is what they're going to start undertaking here in the coming days and weeks. It'll cost about $6 million, and Pacifica City Council is paying for it through its reserve funds and insurance. But the city manager says that they are also going to be asking the state for some grant money, possibly hoping to declare this an emergency so that they're eligible for some money to recoup the losses and the cost of doing this temporary work. When it comes to the timeline. City manager says they don't know how long it's going to take to do this temporary fix, but they are hoping to get it done as quickly as possible because they are expecting this to be a very rainy, stormy winter. Live in Pacifica, Ali Rasmus, KTVU, Fox 2 News.