Repair work to fix Capitola Wharf hits roadblock

Kevin Bransfield has lived in Capitola for 24 years and walks the Capitola Wharf almost every night.

“It’s beautiful when you walk out to the end and you look back at the city, especially at night when all the lights are blazing,” said Bransfield.

On Monday, though, the wharf was partially closed as long piles were brought in for the beginning of a roughly $120,000 emergency repair project.

“We attempted to start a piling replacement project to replace some steel piles and one wooden pile and the epoxy layer was actually coming off so we sent them back to be re-coated,” said Steve Jesberg, Public Works Director with the city of Capitola.

The goal was to close the wharf and fix the floating dock this week. The added closure time isn’t costing the city because it wasn’t their fault, but the wharf businesses are still seeing some losses, according to Jesberg.

“It’s not going to cost us any money but, you know, the businesses out there are kind of suffering without the marina open so we are trying to get it done as quickly as we can,” said Jesberg.

The wharf will be open until construction starts again in about 10 days, according to Jesberg. At that point, the city hopes to close the wharf for only three days.

The entire project is expected to take about five days.