San Diego City Council Approves $8 Million Contract to Begin Work on New Pier in Ocean Beach

On Tuesday, October 11, the San Diego City Council approved an $8 million contract to start working with a consulting firm to replace the Ocean Beach Pier.

Moffat & Nichol will now begin the process of planning for a brand new pier with the city’s engineering team. The firm was approved back on September 14 by the council’s transportation and infrastructure committee for additional services needed for the OB Pier improvement project.

The consultation company expect to begin an evaluation of the pier this year and to have construction begin on the new pier by 2026. The cost ranges from $40-$60 million with a life expectancy of 50 to 75 years.

The $8 million was a grant by the State of California.

Moffat & Nichol was hired back in 2017 to provide the city with inspections, evaluations and repair recommendations. Unfortunately, their evaluations and recommendations were hidden from the public by the city and only brought to life by a series of reports in the OB Rag and by reporter Geoff Page.

Moffat & Nichol — and Page — all stated that the pier had reached the end of its service life and needed to be replaced, not repaired. While mayor, Faulconer kept this from the public — as did Councilmember Campbell during the first part of her tenure – and both repeated the mantra that ‘all we need to do is make more repairs, and everything will be fine.’

Now of course, Campbell is all about getting Moffat & Nichol on board as quickly as possible so she can claim more credit before election day.  She says the next step will be for the task force, the city and the firm come together to bring ideas to the table to build a state-of-the-art pier.

According to staff report, the agreement between the city and Moffat & Nichols will expire in 2028.