Officials Considering Steel or Concrete to Rebuild Pier : Landmarks: With the walkway suffering storm damage for the third time in a year, some say it may be more important to be practical than to focus on Ventura’s image.

The battered Ventura Pier may have to be rebuilt with steel or concrete pilings strong enough to withstand future storms, regardless of community affection for the historic wooden structure, city officials said Thursday.

The collapse of the pier’s 420-foot end section this week--the third time the walkway has suffered heavy storm damage in the last year--shows that the city needs to consider state-of-the-art engineering when it repairs the 123-year-old pier this time, officials said.

“We’re going to have to make a decision on the pier with our heads, not our hearts,” Councilman Jim Friedman said. “We’re going to have to really decide if we want to keep all wood and continue to be known as the longest wooden pier in the state.”

Mayor Jack Tingstrom said the time has come to consider reconstructing the fallen pier with stronger, more expensive materials.

Three years ago, Tingstrom joined the City Council majority in supporting a $3.5-million project to rebuild the end portion of the pier, closed since violent storms undermined it in 1986. The council, though given the option of using stronger concrete supports, chose the more attractive and traditional timber pilings instead.

Tingstrom and Public Works Director Ron Calkins said the earlier decision was not a mistake.

“I think this was the right decision at the time,” Calkins said. “We knew that it was a risk when we did it. . . . That was a community decision.”

A citizens committee in 1991 made that point clear to city leaders.

“The pier should not be commercialized into a concrete structure as it does not fit in the area,” the committee said, “nor is it right for this community’s historic past.”

But Tingstrom said Thursday that he has received numerous phone calls since the pier collapsed early Wednesday from residents who want it fixed for good.

“The recent events of the pier seem to be more important than the historic value,” said the mayor at an afternoon news conference. “A lot of people have been telling me, ‘Encase it in concrete and get it going.’ ”

The remaining three-fourths of the pier is expected to be reopened within two weeks, officials said. Workers must first confirm its stability, knock off another 20 feet of damaged decking and build a new end railing.

Meanwhile, the engineer who managed the multimillion-dollar 1993 pier reconstruction said the city would be gambling against inevitable large storms in the future if it rebuilds with wood.

“From an engineering standpoint, it would be best to rebuild it with another material,” said Walt Hurtienne, vice president of Moffatt & Nichol of Long Beach, which has reconstructed about 20 California piers over the last three decades.

“I think it’s clear that the easiest thing to do is to rebuild it with another material,” Hurtienne said. “But that is really their call. There are wooden piers that function and people are happy with them.”

After a 1981 storm, the Seal Beach Pier was rebuilt with wood pilings for historical and aesthetic reasons. And Malibu is considering the use of wood pilings in reconstructing its dilapidated 90-year-old pier.

But numerous other Southern California piers have been rebuilt with steel or reinforced concrete pilings over the last two decades. Engineers generally say that wooden pier superstructures are cheaper but not as strong as steel. Steel pilings, in turn, are cheaper but less strong than reinforced concrete, engineers said.

Santa Barbara opted for a combination of strength and beauty in several reconstructions in the 1970s and ‘80s. The city rebuilt its Stearn’s Wharf with timber pilings, but shored it up by mounting the pillars in concrete and cinching them together with steel beams.

Ventura’s City Council is not expected to formally decide what to do about the pier for several weeks, after engineers submit damage assessments and recommendations.

Calkins, city point man on the project, said officials must look at three key elements before making their decision on how to rebuild the pier: What materials should be used? Should the pier be built back to its original length? And is it feasible to raise the height of the pier so it will not be as vulnerable to large waves?

The pier now sits just 20 feet above the surf. And analysts say that 18- to 20-foot waves are what tore it apart Wednesday. But raising the pier would require reconstruction of its entire length.

All these factors were considered in 1992, Calkins said. But after a series of public meetings, it was clear to officials that the community wanted an authentic wooden pier--the longest of its kind in California.

But Calkins acknowledged that recent events may have altered the residents’ mood.

“Massive damages have a tendency to change opinions,” he said.

Damage estimates from this storm remain at $1.5 million. The city expects insurance to cover all but a $100,000 deductible.

In fact, the city has been lucky so far in paying for damage to its pier.

Most of the $500,000 repair bill from last winter’s two batterings was covered by federal and state disaster agencies. And the city’s insurer has paid the remaining $194,000. The city’s insurance payments for the last three years totaled just $36,500, Finance Director Mike Solomon said.

The cost of pier insurance to the city is not likely to rise because the city buys into a group policy from two insurers--Lexington and Commerce & Industry--with 149 other cities, Solomon said.

But damage to the pier could cost the city more next time. The city’s deductible could increase from $100,000 to $250,000 or more.

“You get a wreck in your car,” Tingstrom said, “your policy goes up.”