Powerful waves snap Balboa Pier piling

High surf this week snapped a piling at the end of the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach and loosened two others, requiring emergency repairs and leaving a small gap in the pier’s support structure.

The post, at the end of the pier near Ruby’s Diner, sheared underwater when a large wave slammed into the pier late Tuesday, said Newport Beach’s deputy public works director and city engineer, Mark Vukojevic. The rough seas also broke two attached diagonal cross braces, leaving the busted piling and braces swinging like a pendulum.

The city locked the pier overnight and staff went out early Wednesday to assess the situation in better lighting.

A city contractor removed the top half of the broken piling so it wouldn’t damage other posts and timber below the deck, Vukojevic said. Workers also repaired the two loose, less-damaged pilings.

The Balboa Pier is about 920 feet long and has 235 piles. It has since reopened.

The broken piling will be replaced during planned pier maintenance this winter, leaving a gap in the meantime. However, the city will rush the replacement, Vukojevic said.

George Murdoch, city municipal operations director, said an angler reported the broken piling at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Murdoch said the high surf also damaged plumbing under Ruby’s, leading to a sewage spill that caused the Orange County Health Care Agency to issue a three-day closure of the ocean in the immediate area for swimmers.

It’s the second time this month that rough waters have caused damage in the area.

High surf — and high tide — sent at least a foot of water rushing onto Balboa Boulevard between B Street and Medina Way when the tide peaked Oct. 7.

The floodwater receded within about an hour but caused minor damage to some garages in the low point along B Street. The city has since built up its sand berms around the pier.

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