Richmond eyes shoreline erosion project to save Bay Trail expansion

RICHMOND Shoreline erosion at Point Molate Beach could jeopardize a million recreational trail project through Richmond and threaten historical artifacts A million city stake approved by the city council on Tuesday aims to find a key For about a decade the East Bay Regional Parks District and Richmond authorities have envisioned expanding a section of the San Francisco Bay Trail a -mile-long recreational course meant to circle the entire bay along a mile section of Richmond s bayfront Once built the new portion of the pedestrian and cyclists trail would stretch from the historic Winehaven District once known as the largest pre-prohibition winery in the world before becoming a war-time fuel storage site past the Chevron refinery to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge With studies conducted and million in funding from grants tax dollars and legal settlements identified the project was put out to bid All that now holds up expansion is a crumbling section of Point Molate Beach that sits at the center of the future trail site This is not a hypothetical menace This is a current happening condition Deputy Constituents Works Director Robert Armijo explained during the council meeting Tuesday Staff has proposed placing a cluster of large boulders referred to as a revetment or riprap on feet of the beach stretch to create a buffer that would prevent future erosion of a -foot section of the bluff The construction of foundation for feet of the new trail would also be completed as part of the project along with swapping a failed -inch storm drain pipe with a new -inch concrete culvert The city had initially planned to repair the section with a million grant from the Division of Boating and Waterways Shoreline Erosion Control Activity matching it with a city contribution But Armijo explained staff of late discovered the grant was never awarded Growing construction costs updated design plans and mitigation requirements imposed by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board have caused the estimated project budget to increase to million the city revealed If the council did not agree to fund the bluff repairs Armijo and Residents Works Director Daniel Chavarria stated the city runs the menace of losing grant funding for the Bay Trail expansion that requirements to be spent by the end of this year We are right now in the middle of the fire and we need to make a decision right now if we want to lose grants or keep them declared Chavarria What we re trying to do is save the Bay Trail project Concerns about the promising unintended consequences of installing a revetment were raised by members of the citizens Among those concerns are the likely erosion of other sections of nearby beaches future expensive repairs of that damage and the loss of residents access to a chunk of Point Molate Beach Riprap does several things It does stabilize the shoreline but at a terrible price stated Sally Tobin a Richmond resident and member of the Point Molate Alliance and the Richmond Shoreline Alliance This kind of damage is very expensive to repair and disrupts biodiversity Without constructing selected form of barrier Armijo reported other sensitive artifacts including human remains from a sacred indigenous burial site and a historic Chinese fisherman camp could be washed away Rerouting the trail could also damage a marsh the city built to offset impacts to other wetlands during a different project Armijo explained With this plan we are protecting those sites If we don t do this then the bluffs that are at the moment holding onto these culturally sensitive sites they will erode and they will go into the bay Armijo explained Chavarria Armijo and consultants working on the project were unable to answer initial questions about the broader impact of the project and other solutions considered but assured the council they could return before the project is put out to bid to provide more clarity Councilmembers agreed to allocate the funding but only with the requirement that staff return with a survey session during which more information on the environmental impact of the revetment can be presented along with probable project alternatives