Crumbling Seawalls Have Mass. Residents Concerned

(TNS) – A major seawall replacement project on Columbus Avenue is moving at the typical pace of many public infrastructure projects, which is a problem for residents watching the ocean waves crash into where their land meets the sea.

Columbus Avenue, it turns out, is just one seawall of many in Salem needing extensive repairs — after all, the ocean shows zero respect for the walls trying to hold it back.

The Lead Mills wall down by Marblehead is in need of repairs and likely next in line after Columbus, according to Dave Knowlton, Salem’s public works director and chief engineer. The Willows, with several crumbling features combining for third priority on the list, could see barricades erected this year to keep park-goers away from the wall along one of the city’s prominent “Signature Parks.” Repairs are slated for some point in the future given the time involved from planning to construction.

“There’s only a certain amount of capacity we have to take on these projects and do them,” Knowlton said. “If something critical happens, we’d respond immediately, do emergency repairs and put it on a list for an overall project — which takes longer these days, because there are so many permitting agencies that get involved in the walls whether you’re working in a beach, a resource area, a tidal zone.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure things are stable, protect the utilities and roadways on the other side,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the changing climate is accelerating things.”

Columbus Avenue poses some obstacles — some portions are privately owned, others publicly, and there’s some confusion over who owns what. Meanwhile, the ground beyond the wall is washing away with each major storm, leading to sinking points along the sidewalk when the structure underneath it has been eroded.

“It’s gravity holding that wall together,” said Steve Phipps, a Columbus Avenue resident, as neighbors gathered recently to discuss the situation with a reporter. Added Rosemary Bane Bogan: “You can reach into the wall and pull sand out. There’s nothing to the wall left.”

A public portion of the wall runs more than 450 feet along the street, facing Juniper Cove. It’s targeted for $1.5 million in repairs this winter to strengthen the wall and raise it to a uniform height that better responds to recent sea-level rise.

There are two “tie-ins” impacting direct abutters at 44 Columbus Ave. and 30 Bay View Ave., where the to-be-improved stretch of the wall made taller by a couple feet will end. The remaining wall is slated to stay at its current height and condition unless privately improved at the cost of each property owner.

But the residents who live there say they feel the situation becomes perilous for them if only a portion of the wall is raised and improved.

“During the peak of it, at the highest water, I was in the basement fighting the water back,” said Guy Ford, who owns 30 Bay View Ave. “Their design is flawed. They have a tie-in with no recourse on my property. It (the wall) drops down three feet. They’re saying it isn’t going to cause any problems.”

The neighborhood believes it will — once the water hits the taller wall, where does it go next?

“This isn’t ‘pressing’ right now,” said Patty Berking, who owns the other property abutting the wall at 44 Columbus. “But now, all these abutters — 29 abutters — will have to repair their walls or improve their walls or something because of the deflecting waves, once the main wall is built.”

As the neighbors talked about the overall situation, they frequently highlighted Ford’s plight at 30 Bay View Ave.

“The way the tie-in works… the two abutters, Patty and Guy, were given right-of-entry forms,” said Mike Robbins, a Columbus Avenue resident. “Guy has come out and said, ‘I can’t in good conscience sign this right-of-entry form.'”

Speaking later by phone, Ford said it’s “a serious issue living here.”

People who don’t live by the water might question the decision, even suggest those who do shouldn’t be surprised when high tides come ashore. After all, they live by the shore.

These residents might agree, were it not for climate change. It’s now a flooding risk with every king tide.

A plethora of photos and video of massive waves hitting the properties are collected and traded like war stories with each major storm. An entire presentation exists capturing a flood just before Christmas in 2022, where the street was so overburdened that firefighters had to find a detour to access a fire down the road, neighbors explained.

It’s similar to conversations at Leefort Terrace, nearby at Collins Cove. As that site is targeted for a large housing development, many fear a swelling Collins Cove could cut off emergency access and evacuation routes for not just the Terrace, but also the entirety of the Willows and Juniper Point in the decades ahead.

“It’s true we live in a flood zone, and we take that risk to live here and enjoy this, and this is one of the reasons we’re so passionate about it,” Berking said. “We don’t want to leave. I mean, this is my home — so we take that risk. But we need some help.”

“We moved here eyes-wide-open,” Ford said, from the other end of the public wall. “But the storms are repetitive, and we’ve all got to deal with flooding basements and high water, and the seawall here is pretty critical.”

He said his property is “sort of Ground Zero for the flooding here.”

“The city came up with a program in theory to try and help the abutters and cove residents. It’s called the ‘betterments’ program,” Ford said. “They have the engineering firm do a quick geometric study on all the properties along the cove, and they just measure the length of the wall, what condition it’s in, and what basic parameters it would need to be repaired or brought to the level of the new wall.”

The program, Ford said, has caveats.

“Dave Knowlton will say we need to use prevailing wages for any work the city does, so the city could help some of these property owners,” Ford said. “But they have to charge these really high rates.”

In Ford’s case, 90 feet of privately owned wall would require “close to $400,000, and that’s with the city helping,” he said.

“The betterments program will only work if everyone along the line of houses subscribes to the betterments program and takes part in it,” said Ford, the first property along that side of the private wall. “If one person opts out, every property beyond that property can’t use the betterments program.”

The Columbus Avenue project is moving through its permitting phase, Knowlton said, with construction expected to begin this winter “because there just isn’t a lot of people out there at that time.”

Other projects will continue coming together in time, he explained — seawall management is “a continuous process.”

“The City Council and mayors have been great. They’ve been giving me a certain amount of money each year to do assessments. As the projects grow, we get money for design and construction,” Knowlton said. “With sea level rise and storm surges, and heavy rains and things like that, climate change … all of our coastal infrastructure is at risk.”

While improvements this winter sound encouraging to some on Columbus Avenue, there are also thoughts and prayers that a storm doesn’t hit first.

“It’s now five years that we’ve been talking about this and working on a committee on this. And the seawall had to be repaired dramatically after Dec. 23,” said Kathy Picone, another neighbor to the wall, referencing last year’s flood. “It isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse.”

©2023 The Salem News (Beverly, Mass.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.