Newport takes steps to add 9-inch cap to Balboa Island seawalls

Balboa Island is closer to having taller seawalls.

The Newport Beach City Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday night to have city staff bid out a project that would add a 9-inch-tall concrete cap to about a mile and a half of the publicly maintained seawalls on the north, south and west sides of the main Balboa Island.

Councilman Jeff Herdman recused himself because he owns property on the island.

The estimated price tag for construction is $1.5 million to $2 million. The city had budgeted about $5 million with the idea that the walls on the west side of the island might need more-significant work, including replacement. However, an analysis determined that the western walls were sturdy enough to simply cap, said assistant city engineer Bob Stein.

The cap will help protect the community from flooding during especially high tides, officials said.

A contract is expected to be awarded this fall, with work to start at the end of October and last 16 weeks, with a break during the December holidays.

The last wave that topped the existing seawalls cleared them by two to five inches, Stein said.

The extension, which would bring the walls to heights of about 8½ to 9 feet, is a less costly stopgap measure in place of replacing the aging walls. The current walls were built between 1929 and 1939 and are considered to be in fair condition, with some superficial cracking and pitting. With continued maintenance, they should have about 10 to 20 years left in them, according to a staff report.

Capping the walls also gives the city time to save for eventual replacement, a major undertaking costing tens of millions of dollars.

The new project will make the main island’s walls about as tall as those on Little Balboa Island. The city capped those walls in the late 1980s.

The city has been discussing seawall improvements since 2011. A study around that time suggested new walls, “which we couldn’t afford,” Mayor Pro Tem Marshall “Duffy” Duffield said Tuesday.

About two years ago, the council indicated a preference for refurbishing the Balboa Island walls rather than replacing them.

Duffield applauded city staff for devising the extension project.

“I think it should have been done three years ago, but that it’s being done is just awesome,” he said.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD