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Changes coming to SF seawall in coming months
by: John Ferrannini
Posted: May 11, 2022 / 08:56 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – The first portions of the new living seawall coming to San Francisco’s Embarcadero will be installed “most likely in September,” according to a scientist involved in the project.

The goal of the project, which is a joint venture between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Port of San Francisco, is to create ecologically-friendly surfaces that encourage underwater habitats. These surfaces will be placed on the existing seawall, which is a barren concrete surface.

The project will be used “to help inform how to better design seawalls and other marine infrastructure as we move forward with our plans to adapt to sea level rise,” Randy Quezada, the communications director for the port, told KRON4.

Andrew Chang, an ecologist with the center, said that with the existing concrete seawall needing to be restored due to seismic reasons and projected, climate change-related sea level rise, the project is trying to “kill two birds with one stone.”

“It’s up to 100 years old,” Chang told KRON4. “While doing that, there is also a strong interest to create a better habitat for the ecological community around the seawall. That’s where we come in.”

The scientists are working on 90 one-foot square tiles, and six larger tiles, to be placed at the Pier 45 Breakwater on Fisherman’s Wharf, the Agricultural Building Seawall by the Ferry Building and the South Beach Harbor East Breakwater by Oracle Park.

The two-year pilot study will figure out which surfaces would be best for the biosphere of the San Francisco Bay.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/...coming-months/