San Francisco Municipal Pier Investigation

Constructed in 1929, the Pier is a 60-foot wide, 1400-foot long crescent shaped structure composed of a reinforced concrete deck supported by 684 concrete-encased timber pilings. The Municipal Pier shields San Francisco’s northern waterfront, the shoreline and structures of the Aquatic Park Historic District, the Park’s fleet of NHL vessels moored at Hyde Street Pier, from excessive wave action and tidal currents. As part of a structural report on the deterioration of the Pier, ISI worked in conjunction with Winzler & Kelly to assess the condition of the Pier. ISI’s scope of work consisted of taking and testing concrete cores from several piles that support the pier structure. Before the actual coring, the locations were non-destructively investigated with a pachometer to locate reinforcing steel and avoid coring through these bars. Cores were taken from a boat at five (5) different piles throughout the pier structure. The cores were visually evaluated, and tested in our laboratory for compressive strength. After the compressive testing, the cores were sent out to determine the chloride content.