By JW August
While the OB pier stands abandoned, up the coast the Pacific Beach’s Crystal Pier is installing pilings to replace damaged ones … the crew told me they can do about one piling a day now. The job has three elements, moving massive steel girders and wood beams that provide support under the crane, lifting and placing the piling replacement, dropping it through a hole in the boardwalk down to the sand/surf below and lifting up a giant “hammer” over the piling replacement and letting it drop on the top of the pier to drive it into the earth.
A video I took shows the “drop” and you can see the pier move slightly downward — it took about two hours to drive it into position.
