Monolithic structures become monumental failures

“And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually.”

-- Jimi Hendrix

There has been a great deal of interest lately among Laguna Beach

residents that to solve our pedestrian problems we should build

bridges or dig tunnels. Humans, and especially Americans, love these

“think big” engineering solutions. Some Lagunatics were pulling for

the Village Entrance project to include one or both of these options

to carry foot traffic from one side of Laguna Canyon Road to the

other, with “Safety First” as the mantra. Similar thought was given

by others at Main Beach, the Broadway / PCH interchange.

While not made of sand, they would be on unstable, shaky, and

saturated ground. Bridges are visually obtrusive, which leads many to

choose the out-of-sight, out-of-mind burrowings. When faced with

these two options, I choose a third: Use signals and well-lit

crosswalks, with control officers during peak hours. My reasoning is

as follows: Laguna Canyon’s aquifer near the festivals is estimated

at about 6-10 meters (20-35 feet) below grade level maximum, so going

under with a tunnel is literally snorkel diving. A complex

installation, bridge stabilization would require finding terra firma

to sink structural supports both vertically and laterally. If you’ve

ever tried a waterbed, then you know that when things start moving

(like in an earthquake), it’s “shake, rattle, and roll” and the frame

provides your only line of defense from chaos.

This could cost millions alone, but the real problems would come

AFTER they failed due to seismic activity or another cataclysm. A

huge sinkhole, or an enormous pile of rubble, either way our city

evacuation and / or emergency rescue abilities would be seriously

compromised. Major fire and flood events have proven our

vulnerability to function properly when this arterial highway is

unavailable. During post-calamity reconstruction, traffic nightmares

would hinder and affect downtown businesses. Another consideration is

who or what gets injured / damaged during “de-construction,” that is

the climatic anomaly itself?

The above quandaries and gridlock problems hold doubly true for

the Main Beach location, and not only because it is the “nexus” of

vehicular flow through our city. The ionic (ocean) water table meets

the groundwater aquifer near this junction, only 5-8 feet down. The

attendant salts and minerals in this mixing zone have a more caustic

or corrosive effect, meaning advanced protection technologies hence

greater construction monies. The incredible gamut of contaminates

discovered during the investigation phase of the now-defunct flood

control project would require an unknown, perhaps cost-prohibitive

remediation of existing compromised soil and waters. On a humorous

note, this tunnel could become an aquarium to view pollution or

sewage spills up close and personal, sort of a “Disneyland of

Detritus” type attraction. Maybe we could charge admission. A bridge

would ruin our window to the sea, the aesthetic focal point of this

intensely visited and photographed site.

The flawed tragedy of the destroyed Aliso Pier should have warned

us: Built, rebuilt and repaired, a veritable black hole of county

taxpayers’ funds over its short, sad history. To reconstruct after

the last El Nino: Estimates ranged from 10-15 million dollars, and

our newly-appointed County Supervisor, Tom Wilson, was chafing at the

pork barrel bit. This was my first environmental battle, and the goal

was to keep this monstrosity from another chance at life. Why?

Because it was a beautifully pristine cove 25 years before, a

wonderful childhood memory of an unsullied California beach without

that concrete “rocket launch pad,” a one-of-a-kind unobstructed view

at sea level for locals. The pier was just a stubby, glorified

promenade, an example of human arrogance. Many such monolithic

structures are disasters waiting to happen. Like the Tower of Babel,

they are testimonials to hubris. That is assuming that humans can

overcome the forces, foibles and quirks of planet Earth. When

considering these potential monumental failures keep in mind a

baseball metaphor: “Mother Nature bats last.”

* Submitted by Roger von Butow, Founder and Chairman of the Clean

Water Now! Coalition, co-founder of the South Orange County Watershed

Conservancy. E-mail: rvonbutow@cleanwaternow.com