End of Cayucos Pier removed as workers prepare structure for winter storms

If the Cayucos Pier looks a bit shorter these days, that’s because it is.

Crews recently removed the damaged, final 15 feet of the iconic structure’s decking. The removal now is to help keep the rest of the pier safer during any winter storms, according to County Public Works’ statement.

“This is an immediate measure, to reduce the risk of additional damage to the pier,” the county said in a news release on its website.

There is still lots of work to be done on the historic structure, according to Shaun Cooper, assistant director of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Project management is a combined effort between the county’s Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments, he said, with the former handling the technical and engineering end of things.

The pier was closed to the public on weekdays between 7 and 11 a.m., with fencing up along its length during the brief spate of work taking off the damaged portion.

“No pilings needed to be removed,” Cooper said, as the waves and earlier damage-repair efforts had taken care of that, leaving the wobbly, unsupported deck section cantilevered out over the sea.

The closure allowed crews setup time for moving their equipment and supplies into place each day, Cooper said. They could then get on with the process of removing the decking. The pier could close again periodically for additional chores, as it did Friday while crews installed a railing at the new end of the pier.

Hartzell General Engineering Contractor in Cayucos is doing this interim, nearly $120,000 removal project.

The county’s insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency moneys combined to underwrite the work, he said.

The work and closures had been expected to extend over the next four weeks or so, but the tasks apparently went faster than expected, according to a crew member on site Thursday afternoon.

Public Works expects the rebuilding phase will take about a year for tasks that include designing the replacement and seeking bids for construction, according to the release.

Part of that work involved reinstalling the end rail with the plaques on it, along with the plaque-adorned side rails.

Preliminary estimates for the total cost, including the pier-end removal, design and construction of the rebuild, is estimated to be a bit more than $1 million, Cooper told The Tribune on Thursday. “We have the funds to do that.”

The bigger picture would restore the missing stretch

The project to remove the pier’s final “bent” or seaward end is a key part of that larger county Public Works repair job to restore to its former glory the full length of the nearly 1,000-foot, historic pier, this time with additional support from steel piles instead of wood.

The pier-damage scenario is a familiar one to Cayucos residents.

The structure was totally revamped from 2013 to October 2015, with much of that work paid by the community that loves the pier.

But Ma Nature had other ideas since then, bashing the new pier with high tides and strong waves, most severely in 2024. That onslaught wound up knocking the pier end’s support system out of commission, leaving that part of the deck dangling dangerously.

Some of the pier’s support pilings wound up on the beach, in the sea or swaying from the end of the pier.

Now, the latest repairs finally are underway, restoring once again the structure originally built in 1872 as a 380-foot wharf by Cayucos founder Capt. James Cass.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

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Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.