12′ High Seawall for City of Pacifica, Calif. Installed 1989

Unique Features:

The precast wall was an alternate in the Woodward-Clyde bid package and was selected by Granite Construction over the MSE wall alternate. An integral wave deflector was monolithically cast with the top wall panels instead of the field cast cap that was shown for the MSE wall.

Prior to the wall installation a trench was cut into the slope and a cip cut off wall was constructed behind rip rap. The precast wall components were then installed. Since sand was used for wall fill filter fabric/geotextiles were placed over the fill side of the precast elements.

The wall has been subjected to many extreme load conditions compared to a typical seawall/erosion control structure. Locals claim that the tallest wave ever recorded in North America occurred at Pacifica. There are shots of these giant waves at local establishments. Some smaller waves are shown crashing into the wall in the shots.

Also the wall was impacted by the San Francisco earthquake which hit shortly after the wall was completed. The existing MSE wall north of the fishing pier has not fared so well. We understand that due to the corrosion of the metal soil reinforcement and movement fill has been lost from behind the wall. To address this issue the city has apparently refilled voids with concrete fill. There have been no issues with the Stresswall Structure.