It’s Spring and the mandated sand transfer from West to East at the marina has been going on, but how many of you have seen how it’s done? Where does the sand go and how does it get there? Once you look at it, you might have a few questions.
The massive amount of sand shown above looks great, carefully contoured and sloping down to the water. After one or two storms on the lake, how much of that sand will remain?
The dump trucks used to move the sand are Caterpillar Model 730. If you read the specifications for those trucks, you’ll find the empty weight is 52690 lb, that’s 26 tons. Total loaded weight is 114420 lb, that’s 57 tons.
Was this parking lot designed for truck traffic ranging from 26 to 57 tons? How many trips across the lot did these trucks have to make? The asphalt paving has many cracks which could contribute to water infiltrating the ground below.
Here’s a photo of the seawall collapse at the marina next to the parking lot. It’s hard to tell what the underlying structure looks like, but strictly from appearance there doesn’t seem to be a lot of heavy reinforcement. Water draining down the hill from above and then infiltrating through the numerous cracks in the pavement, combined with freeze and thaw cycles may affect the structure down below
Here’s a look at the damage to the parking lot and retaining wall from above. Whatever the actual cause of the collapse, there’s a lot of repair work to be done.
The sand moving project every year, done at tremendous cost to the marina, doesn’t work. The sand to the east, so beautifully spread and graded cannot stand up to Lake Erie storms, so whatever money is spent will soon be gone and the process will have to repeat.
Perhaps, this will give you a little better idea of the magnitude of the problems the marina authority is dealing with. There are no easy solutions, especially since so many government agencies have a hand in what can be done. Hopefully, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, we’ll have a fully functioning marina in the near future and for many years to come.
Jim says
This is a good analysis of the wall failure. I walked this wall with a neighbor recently, and the entire length seems compromised. The only point I’d add is that the maintenance needs have been neglected since the marina was built. Asphalt needs to be sealed and repaired periodically.
Regarding the beach material, there are two missing points. First, the material isn’t sand, it’s sand and cobble mixed together (rocks up to about 12″). The current bypass operations are currently insufficient because the littoral drift includes larger boulder materials as well, which have not been bypassed at all since the marina was installed. Second, the littoral drift system is not static, it’s constantly moving. The prevailing SW winds/waves move it down the shoreline from West to East. The obstructive design of the marina halted this, causing the downdrift beaches to transform into bedrock starved of the littoral drift system.