EDMONDS – A portion of the wooden bulkhead below the walkway that leads to the Edmonds fishing pier washed out Wednesday evening, causing much of the sidewalk to collapse.
No one was injured. Police cordoned off the sidewalk, city parks director Brian McIntosh said Thursday. Some fishermen had to step over part of the sinkhole to get off the pier, McIntosh said.
“They weren’t in any danger,” he said.
The pier will remain closed until the hole – about 25 feet long, 15 feet wide and 5 feet deep – can be temporarily repaired, hopefully in a few days, McIntosh said. The bulkhead belongs to the city; the walkway is owned by the Port of Edmonds.
“It’s safe to say without any equivocation that the port and city will work together to get it back up and running,” port commissioner Bruce Faires said.
The wooden seawall was scheduled to be replaced with a concrete wall this summer, McIntosh said.
“Unfortunately we didn’t quite make it.”
One of the highest tides of the year peaked at 10.7 feet at 5:16 p.m. Wednesday, less than an hour before the collapse. But McIntosh said the wall’s failure and erosion around it was caused more by the wall’s age and condition than anything else.
“It’s been going on for years,” he said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com
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