Voters to decide bond measure for S.F. seawall

San Francisco voters will be asked to allow $350 million to be spent on a first round of improvements for the city’s crucial but fragile Embarcadero seawall, officials said Monday.

That’s not nearly enough to strengthen the entire century-old structure, which runs from Fisherman’s Wharf to Mission Creek and protects such areas as the Financial District from bay tides. But it would be an enormous boost for a project that eventually could cost anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion.

Placing a $350 million bond for seawall upgrades on the 2018 ballot is included in the latest version of the city’s 10-year capital plan,

which is updated on an annual basis. Such a bond would be the first large financial commitment to the effort, which is now in the early stages of planning.

“It’s a huge commitment (by Mayor Ed Lee’s administration) to put a bond like this on the schedule, and to do it so early,” said Elaine Forbes, director of the Port of San Francisco. “It will be our job to make the case to voters that this is an urgent need.”

A study done for the port last year found that a major earthquake could cause the seawall, constructed over decades of rock and concrete, to lurch and sag. Such movement would damage or devastate buildings along the Embarcadero as well as the utility lines below.

Since the study was released, City Hall has budgeted $10 million to begin detailed studies of how the seawall might best be upgraded and to find the vulnerable sections that might first need repairs. The studies will also look at whether the project should include making the seawall higher — a proactive but expensive response to projections that the bay’s average tides could climb more than 5 feet in the coming century.

Under the current timeline, design work and environmental studies would begin in 2018, with construction on key stretches starting in 2021. The budget for these phases, billed as “immediate life safety upgrades,” is $500 million.

If the bond passes in 2018, “this would allow us to go right from planning into design and construction,” Forbes said Monday. “Early money in a project like this is critical.”

The shaky health of the seawall, and the question of what to do with the aged piers along it, led in October to the Embarcadero being placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.