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Collapse China Cove House In Limbo
posted: July 31st, 2009 01:13 pm |
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The China Cove house that partially collapsed last week remains closed to all but emergency workers, propped up and with its future unclear.
“Now what happens is the homeowner needs to get his own experts for permanent repairs,” said Jay Elbettar, Newport Beach building director. “It’s totally a private matter right now.”
The home in the 2700 block of Cove Street was vacant, undergoing a major remodel, when high tides caused sand to seep through a crack in the seawall. In the early hours of July 23, neighbors reported hearing a loud bang, when the foundation of the home collapsed into a hole about five feet deep and ten feet long — a hole that had been filled with the sand that had vanished with the tides.
Neighbors called the city at 10 a.m. that day, and crews arrived and began working to save the house from complete devastation, Elbettar said. “If the tide would rise as it was expected, the front part of the house would have collapsed if not all the house,” he said. “Our goal was to save the house from further damage.”
Crews began bracing the upper part of the house and then workers filled the hole with slurry, relaxing a little bit with each passing moment but constantly checking the seawall’s stability. The China Cove beach was closed in case the house did fall, or the sea wall collapsed. It was red-tagged, later yellow-tagged, allowing the owner to have experts through to assess damage.
Owner Harley Broviak said he’s waiting to decide what can be done. He’s had several engineers to the site as well as a surveyor. They may be able to lift the home and then repair the foundation — or not.
He and other neighbors have expressed concern about the low levels of sand at China Cove and wondered if the low sand level contributed to the problem. Elbettar said he could not comment on that issue, but he added that the hole seemed to be under Broviak’s house only; crews looked for sign of problems with the neighboring home and saw none.
Meanwhile, the beach was reopened late Wednesday. Read our earlier coverage here.
