Big CATs digging in the sand, 6/13/26

It’s not often you get to see big construction equipment on the beach and contending with ocean waves.  The city had given me a notice, as a resident of Beach Blvd, that they were going to be doing work to try and shore up the Pacifica Pier and prevent further damage/collapse.  Since they mentioned being constrained by tides, and having to work at night and early morning, I was guessing that they would be trying to work around low tide, especially since we’re having lower than normal low tides right now.  With low tide being 4am, I was expecting they’d likely start around 1am or 2am to maximize their low tide time.  So I set my alarm for 1am, 2am, 3am and 4am and each time I looked at my webcams to see if there was any activity.  Around 4am a flatbed showed up, so I got dressed, headed out with my camera and looked and waited.  But after an hour of no activity, I went back home and laid down.  Around 7:15am I started to see some activity, so headed back out.  I was a bit perplexed as to why they didn’t start earlier.  But it eventually started to become a bit more clear after I watched what they were doing.

I was confused as to why the excavators stopped midway between the end of Beach Blvd and the pier and started digging.  Eventually I realized they were digging up the rocks which had been buried by sand for years.  I don’t know if it was a Coastal Commission thing, a cost thing, a timing thing or some combination of the above - but it seems instead of getting new rocks delivered, they were digging up old rocks.  They didn’t end up taking the rocks all the way to the pier.  I don’t know if where they were placing them today is the “final” location or if they’re just staging them to be moved closer to the pier at the next low tide.  Time will tell.  In any case, the 12 year old boy in me enjoyed watching the “boys with big toys” on the beach.