Coastal erosion has become a big problem around the Monterey Bay

Road work has begun along East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, along Seabright Beach near Alhambra Avenue, due to erosion on the cliff. Public works crews are expected to be repairing this section of East Cliff Drive over the next two weeks.

City engineer Steve Wolfman has worked in Santa Cruz for nearly 30 years and he’s seen his fair share of challenges that come with a coastal city.

“Well it’s challenging in the fact that you never really know what’s going to happen next,” said Wolfman.

Whether it’s flooding, sinkholes, or in this case, erosion. According to Wolfman, crews plan to shift East Cliff Drive back, away from the coast, about eight feet. The work will also include replacing the handrails along the cliff that are essentially failing.

“We just are kind of moving things around to give us time to look for a bigger solution to the problem,” added Wolfman.

But that bigger solution is hard to find. Over at UCSC, Gary Griggs, Director of Marine Sciences, has been studying coastal erosion for years. He added that coastlines, sea levels and the climate have always been changing. But it’s the speed of change recently that’s put many on edge.

“It’s not a good prognosis for anybody living right on the edge,” said Griggs. “We can hold it back for a while, a decade or two, but at some point you say ‘whoa, can we deal with five feet of sea level rise? Or ten feet?'”

Unfortunately, there’s no stopping the coastline, sea levels and the climate from changing. Only slowing it down and learning to manage.

“Sea walls, revetments, rip rap, and they can be affective,” said Griggs. “We have some that have lasted almost a century and others that have lasted for about 6 weeks.”