SWAMPSCOTT — Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald warned residents to stay away from the collapsed seawall lining the back of the Mission on the Bay restaurant in an interview Friday morning.
Mission on the Bay owner Marty Bloom hired contractors from Intralux Construction to stabilize the wall after a portion of it crumbled last week, leaving a hole in the structure.
Fitzgerald said after meeting with the engineers hired by the restaurant, town officials are concerned that the wall system lining the restaurant is in “a very precarious position.”
“No one should go near that wall system right now. It is compromised and we are very concerned about its structural integrity,” Fitzgerald said. “Do not go underneath or inspect the void in the area where the wall collapsed. It currently is a serious public-safety concern, so please stay away.”
The wall collapse last Friday prompted the restaurant’s indefinite closure. On Friday, Bloom said he relocated Mission on the Bay employees to his other restaurants. He said engineers will first have to develop a plan to secure the wall before repairs can begin.
“We have a whole wall that needs to be secure in some fashion,” Bloom said. “Whenever we can start fixing it, it will take approximately two weeks before we’ll be able to reload and reopen.”
Bloom said after consulting engineers from GeoEngineers in Boston, he expects to have a full repair plan to present to the town by the beginning of next week.
Bloom said he did not know what the estimated repair cost would be. Xtreme Shotcrete owner Michael Whitehead, who the city hired to spray concrete on the wall immediately after the collapse, estimated it would cost at least $300,000 to $800,000 to repair the entire wall.
Bloom added that he’s working to reopen Mission on the Bay as soon as possible. He said the restaurant’s rooftop oceanside dining area brings in a lot of customers in the spring and summer, and he hopes to get back to business as soon as he can.
“It’s like losing a child and/or losing something that’s important to me — we’ve become the gathering spot for the whole town,” he said.
Since Mission on the Bay’s seawall neighbors the town-owned wall beneath Anthony’s Pier 4 Cafe, town officials met with engineers from the firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) on Wednesday to begin an investigation into the town-owned wall’s structural integrity.
SGH Structural Repair and Rehabilitation Division Head Greggrey Cohen said the firm had not yet begun a thorough investigation.
“I haven’t done enough work to render an opinion about whether the Pier 4 wall was affected by the collapse of the Mission wall,” Cohen said.
Cohen said a team of engineers will have to visibly inspect the Pier 4 wall, and likely need to dig holes in its side to check for any damage. He said structural issues within seawall structures are often hidden from exterior view and require extensive examination to uncover.
Fitzgerald said that after speaking with SGH, as well as Department of Public Works Director Gino Cresta, he feels confident that the town’s wall is in “much better shape” than Mission on the Bay’s seawall. He said the town is working with Bloom to ensure the wall is repaired as fast as possible, but he wants to ensure the public’s safety during the process.
“It’s our hope that we can move forward with all deliberate speed to address these issues. While we do, I just want the public to stay far enough away to enjoy that beautiful vista of Boston, but keep safe,” Fitzgerald said.
