The Ledger Podcast · S1 E1
Who pays for the seawall
The council wants a new seawall before the next storm season. An engineer and a Front Street landlord on what it will cost, and who will be billed.
- Hosts
- Mara Okafor and Daniel Reyes
- Guests
- Hollis GrantCoastal engineer, Alden Harbor Authority
- Beatriz SotoOwner, Soto Building on Front Street
The council voted 6-1 this week to rebuild the seawall for $48 million. Mara Okafor and Daniel Reyes talk to the engineer who wrote the risk assessment and a Front Street landlord who will be billed for part of it.
Topics in this episode:
- Why the 1954 wall failed in three places last winter
- How the harbor fee was calculated
- What happens if the vote had failed
Read the full story, Council votes to rebuild the seawall, on the site.
Transcript
Mara Okafor: Hollis, start with the wall itself. Why did it fail in three places this winter and not, say, ten years ago?
Hollis Grant: The wall was built in stages, the oldest section in 1911, the newest in 1954. Concrete from that era wasn't built for the tide levels we're seeing now. We're about eight inches higher at high tide than the engineers who poured that concrete were planning for.
Daniel Reyes: Eight inches sounds small.
Hollis Grant: It isn't, once you add a storm surge on top of it. The wall was never rated for that combination, and this winter it got tested three times in eight weeks.
Mara Okafor: Beatriz, your building flooded twice. Walk me through what that did to the ground floor.
Beatriz Soto: Eleven days closed for the fish market on the corner, new flooring, new electrical up to two feet. My insurance covered part of it. The tenant lost eleven days of sales he can't get back.
Daniel Reyes: And now you're getting a bill for the new wall on top of that.
Beatriz Soto: A share of it, yes, through the harbor fee. It's not nothing, but it's less than what I'd pay in flood repairs every other year if the wall stays as it is.
Mara Okafor: Hollis, if the vote had gone the other way, what happens?
Hollis Grant: We'd be back in front of the council within a year, probably after another failure. The cost doesn't go away by waiting. It goes up.
Daniel Reyes: Construction starts when?
Hollis Grant: Permitting this spring, work begins in June, with a target of substantial completion before next October, ahead of storm season.
Mara Okafor: Beatriz, last question. Was the four hours of testimony worth it?
Beatriz Soto: I sat through all four hours. It felt long, but I'd rather the council heard from every landlord on that street than rush a vote we'd be arguing about for years.