Its 90-plus years of life in the ocean caught up to the Children's Pool seawall this week.
Thousands, maybe millions of San Diegans and visitors to the area have traversed the narrow walkway above the seawall at the La Jolla's Children's Pool, and even before this week it wasn't hard to miss the toll the tides have taken on the once-proud structure, its railings rusting and its once-smooth walkway pitted, stones protruding, across much of its surface.
By Tuesday, a section of the steel-pipe railing nearly all the way out its 300-foot length had visibly broken free from its neighbors, looking not unlike a gap in the teeth of a small child's mouth.
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Reached later in that evening, city of San Diego public information officer Benny Cartwright confirmed the situation.
"City staff are aware of the damaged railing and are going out this week to evaluate the severity of it," Cartwright told NBC 7's Bill Feather. "The gate will remain closed until the repairs are complete. Staff do not yet have a timeline on when repairs will be completed."
According to LaJolla.com, the seawall is 16 feet high in one section, took more than 10 years to build and was constructed from more than 3,200 barrels of concrete. An engineering study undertaken last year estimated repairs to the seawall would cost in the neighborhood of $2 million-plus, according to one report.
Weather
The development was not entirely surprising, given the age of the structure and considering that the monster waves — some forecast as big as 16 feet — hit in the past week.
Those waves, which struck Ocean Beach's pier with such severity that they prompted its renewed closure due to railing — and, possibly, other — damage. The pier is also closed “indefinitely," according to a statement sent to NBC 7 from the city of San Diego.
Last January, the city of San Diego secured $8.4 million to fix the pier, but there has not been a plan shared for this yet. A timeline that is, of course, further disrupted by the pier’s recent damage.
