The damaged Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf is set to reopen Saturday, less than two weeks after powerful waves caused a portion of it to collapse into the ocean.
The reopening is much earlier than officials first thought after a section at the end of the under-construction wharf collapsed into the Pacific Ocean and washed away during a strong storm on Dec. 23.
Three workers who went into the water with the debris were rescued.
Several businesses have been closed since the collapse and subsequent wharf closure, and city officials initially said it could take weeks, if not months, to partially reopen the wharf.
Those businesses also were slated to reopen Saturday.
"I think the city did what they did to make it safe for us; there was no way they were going to open it if they felt it was going to put anyone in danger," said Lance Haggard, managing partner of Fire Fish & Grill, Woodies Cafe, and Gilberts gift Shop.
Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker told KSBW the wharf has been deemed safe to reopen after a recently completed sonar and engineering assessment, which was reviewed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Additionally, Tony Alliot of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation said an assessment completed by Moffat and Nichol deemed it safe to reopen.
"Moffat and Nichol did not observe any damage to the Wharf’s structure capacity beyond the area affected by storm damage and noted that it has the same strength it did before the storm," Alliot said in a news release.
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The portion of the wharf affected by the collapse will remain closed.
The city will hold a public reopening ceremony starting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the wharf staging area.
