BRIGHTER LIGHTS?

"Notice how the lights now seem brighter?"

A joke, of course, but Hoyt may have correctly put his finger on the future dependability of the Island's power source.

As of 1:00 p.m. Friday, Lee Engstrom reported, the Island's power shifted from the old submarine cable to the new cable, and without a hitch.  Both men serve as directors of the REA Board, and they, as well as Manager Robert Cornell and other REA crew and Directors, should feel both relieved and proud of this accomplishment.  Lee accompanied contractors daily during cable repair and cable laying activities in order to properly document with photos this past year's events.

Monday, Feb. 4, Wisconsin Public Service crew spliced
new cable, connecting both old and new supply cables 
to this switch box, and to the line that runs underground,
leading to theElectric Co-op sub-station. 
 Lee Engstrom is at right, with camera.

Problems began with the unanticipated underwater cable failure in June, and the need to repair that break as quickly as possible.  This initiated multiple steps in logistics and timing:  underwater divers; a cable splicing crew; a work barge with tug to lift and cut the failed section and then reset the repaired cable back in place.

In the fall of 1980, cable arrived on a barge, but so had
winter, and it would be spring before weather permitted
laying the first underwater electric cable for the Island.

The checklist was long, the cost was unexpected, and the long-term outlook, given the old cable's status, remained one of uncertainty.

That cable had been laid in spring of 1981, but given the low draw compared to its rated capacity, and given exclusive use in fresh water, expectations were for it to have a longer life span.  However, along the relatively flat rock bottom west of Plum Island, and at a depth of 40 feet, ice nevertheless had shoved and abraded the cable over time.  Fortunately, this break resulting in an instant power outage on the Island occurred at the start of our summer and in warmer weather.  This made cable location and repair easier than if it had been mid-winter.  Generators were then started and placed on line, but at a significant cost in daily fuel consumption.  An emergency CAT generator had to be located and trucked to the Island when one of the two REA units suffered failure of an air intake casting. This series of events even further compounded the main cable repair challenge and stretched limited resources of the Co-op team.

Almost as soon as cable failure occurred and simultaneous with the on-going repairs that would stretch to ten days' time, the REA's plan of action was exercised, led by the Electric Co-op's manager, Robert Cornell.   It called for the procurement of a new cable, to be manufactured by an east coast firm.  It would be of length based on a new route, different from that previously used.  Rather than route the cable around Plum Island as was previously done, a route that might once again subject the cable to shoving ice fields, this time the cable would be laid inside a polyethylene sleeve and trenched to at least 20-foot depth, and it would run from Northport to Plum Island.  Then the cable would cross Plum Island underground, using less expensive, land-based cable material trenched in soil.  Near the old Plum Island Life Saving Station it would reenter the lake and from there cross to Washington Island. It would come ashore alongside the 1981 electric cable, in an easement adjacent to the former Goodwin Berquist property.  Now, a new switch box links both old and new underwater cables to terminals that can connect to the underground cable leading inland to the REA distribution center, on Main Road.

Island lineman Mike Jorgenson with Public Service splicing
crew, Feb. 4.   New switch box shown.  Ferry Arni J. Richter
is a dot near the horizon, background. 

Like any large project, timing is everything:  to obtain needed cable from manufacturer before freeze up, when ice covers the lake and makes waterborne construction impossible; trenches dug from shore into the water at four locations, with a ten-inch polyethylene sleeve buried and ready to accept the cable at each entry point; and also, to lay the Plum Island segment of underground cable while landing there with men and equipment was still easily managed.

The new cable arrived by truck in Sturgeon Bay, later than expected and promised, on enormous reels.  It was loaded on contractor Roen's work barge at Bay Shipbuilding.  This delay in cable delivery pushed back laying new cable until the middle of December.  But then, by good fortune, a series of windless, warm days permitted the Roen crew to successfully lay the two segments of underwater cable.  Only a few hundred feet of surplus remained on either side of the runs, in the event of course deviation while tug and barge laid cable.

A separate company monitored the laying of the cable with underwater cameras to assure the new electric cable did not pass over large, sharp rocks, or suspend, unsupported, over wide crevices.

Dec. 15 - A brief return of warm weather and light air enabled Roen 
Construction to lay the two underwater cable sections without a hitch. 
Divers connected cable ends to a loom attached to a heavy wire rope, 
then helped feed the end into the conduit as it was pulled ashore 
through the sleeve by Tom Jordan's excavator.

The splicing of cable segments to one another, and to the Wisconsin Public Service feed at Northport, was completed, then, this past week, with the new cable becoming "live" early Friday afternoon.   The old cable remains energized, just in case, under a greatly reduced load, in order to remain dry and usable.

  Sections of plastic conduit were bolted together into approx. 
500-ft. lengths and laid out on the Potato Dock prior to being 
towed into position and sunk into trenches dug at each exit/entry point.  
Red conduit is for fiber-optic cable. (Taken in early December.)

Congratulations on a major effort, a "well done" to all involved.

Now, what about the fiber optic cable laid alongside the new electrical cable?  It's caused Co-op manager Robert Cornell the least concern, up until now.   As this project winds up (some back-filling still necessary where the cable enters/exits near shore at Northport) it, too, will get attention.

 -  Dick Purinton

PRE-BID CONFERENCE HELD

Aerial view of Detroit Harbor - thought to have been taken
prior to 1964, as lake level approached record low.  
Shallows south of ferry dock were dredged in 1964, and spoils
were dumped along shoreline (currently location of
 island ferry terminal).  Appendage at Kap's Marina extending toward
channel was not yet constructed.
At lower left:  Green Bay Road and access road to Potato Dock.
(Ferry Line archives photo)

Washington Island, Wisconsin -  

A pre-bid conference for the Detroit Harbor dredging project was held in the Rutledge Room of the Community Center Thursday, March 28 at 10:30 a.m.  

The 90-minute conference with discussion was followed with a drive to inspect the probable trucking route, the Town spoils receiving site (adjacent to the waste transfer facility), and the spoils off-loading site at the Potato Dock.  Potential contract bidders were able to see first-hand the island facilities and locations that will be used.  Concerns regarding bid specifications were encouraged to be aired in the presence of the Town's engineering consulting firm, in order to provide clarification.  Each contractor was given a bound specification book prior to the meeting that included bid requirements and questions to be answered in order to submit a qualifying bid.

Sealed bid documents must be received by the Town of Washington no later than 4 p.m. Monday, April 15.  These will be opened at a Special Meeting of the Town Board, 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 16th.

If and when funded, the project start date would be no earlier than August 1, 2013, beginning with site preparations for receiving dredge spoils.  Digging and trucking would not begin before the close of Labor Day weekend, 2013.   Then, depending upon the project options selected and funded, the project could be completed as early as Memorial weekend of 2014, or it could extend beyond the summer of 2014 (with no trucking during peak summer months) concluding in late 2014.  The fact there are numerous project options, each requiring separate bid information, raises many potential questions. Clarification of contractor expectations was an important reason for the in-person conference.

In order to first qualify as a bidder, each contractor had to demonstrate that their company owns or manages the necessary equipment and has the expertise to handle such a project.  Barges, cranes or similar mechanical digging devices, and the successful completion of a project of at least 25,000 cu. yds. within the past three years, were among those qualifying requirements.

The Detroit Harbor project is sizable, both in terms of yardage and cost.  It is estimated 135, 457 cu. yds. will be dredged if the full project depth and dimensions are funded.  (One option includes widening the channel by 20 feet; others call for completion in consecutive funding years, at different project depths.)

The final engineering study recently completed under a State of Wisconsin grant late last fall helped to further define the project scope.  Foth Infrastructure and Environment, LLC was awarded that contract.  Their bidding document addressed the range of basic information a contractor should know before submitting a realistic, informed bid.

Because State funding for this project is still in question, and the dollar amounts of the project aren't yet exactly known (but is believed to fall in the $9 + million range) bidders were asked to submit their bids based on three option packages.  The project could be one, large continuous project - interrupted only by winter - if all of the dollars needed were granted at once.  Or, the project could be split into two phases over different funding years and at different project depths.  Those variables and uncertainties make it difficult to plan such a project, and it also requires faith on the part of an interested bidder to participate when funding and timing is uncertain.  From the State's funding point of view, having an actual contractor bid helps legislators and administrators to identify appropriations for WDOT.

Answers to the pieces of a fairly complex project were needed in order to better define the project.   One example:  in order to analyze bottom material that may be encountered, a number of core samples were taken in late December.  Those core samplings help a contractor determine what sort of equipment will best do the job, how difficult the digging might be, and in turn, how long it might take to complete the project.  Each miscalculation could markedly add to the project expense.

Much of last Thursday's discussion centered around offloading, trucking and dumping of spoils.  All phases - for which the selected contractor assumes responsibility - must work smoothly along with digging, in order to efficiently use equipment and labor.  Trucking will involve many hundreds of round trips by dump trucks to the Town's spoil site on Gunnlaugsson Road, and this activity is viewed by experienced contractors as the "choke point" of such projects.  If trucks can't keep up with the supply of dredged material, then it doesn't matter how fast material can be dug.  The actual trucking route, possible restrictions on hours for trucking, and the inevitable road damage that results from repeated, heavy traffic were among the concerns expressed.

Toward the close of the meeting, Foth moderator Ken Potrykus said it will take coordination of all parties involved in order to accomplish the goals of this project.   

Besides two Foth representatives who moderated the meeting, three marine contractor companies were represented:  Roen Salvage Company of Sturgeon Bay; Luedtke Engineering Company of Frankfort, Michigan; and Gro America of White Lake Dock and Dredge, Montague, Michigan.  Also present were Town Chairman Joel Gunnlaugsson, Town Supervisors Randy Sorenson and Tom Jordan, and audience members Lonnie Jorgenson, Mike Kahr, Hoyt Purinton and Richard Purinton. 

Attendance was mandatory for interested bidders, so that any questions and concerns regarding bids, and the responses, could be fairly addressed in an open forum.

-  Dick Purinton

AGAIN ??

Seems like the same old story, digging, trucking and muck.  
But each day holds newchallenges.  Current dredge spoil 
totals are now slightly over the half-way mark
objective in terms of volume of spoils, and
not quite half-way in bottom area to be dug.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island

-  Last Day, 2012  -

By far the largest dredging project yet undertaken by the Ferry Line is the deepening of waters adjacent to the Island Potato Dock.  In the warmer weather of any other season, a successful project conclusion would be assumed as only a matter of time and money.  But with winter coming on, short daylight hours, temperatures sure to drop below the pleasant upper 20s of the past weeks, and equipment and people increasingly under strain, achievement of our goal is still a ways off.

"No, not another blog on dredging," was a comment I received, directed toward the series of reports with similar themes of late.

I can't help myself!  I find the combination of big equipment, the project scale and challenges too intriguing to pass up.  And, that doesn't begin to address the alternatives if the Ferry Line and the Island can't have one, safe ferry landing site come real winter.  Not succeeding is just something none of us can begin to contemplate.  So... its dig and haul, dig and haul, until sufficient material is removed.

"Why is this being done so late in the season?" is one question we've been asked.

The project as it stands on this last day of the year is a culmination of action begun months ago.  First, as water levels were monitored, we hoped the drop would not lead to extremes requiring immediate dredeging.  The cost of such activities was huge enough that we waited until we were sure certain there were no other options besides expenditure for dredging.

The paperwork - the filing of permit applications for state and local approvals that allow a project like this legally go forward began in early October.  That was when falling lake levels sounded serious alarms for the consequences of the coming winter's navigation.  We were fortunate in the permitting process to have had the prompt and full cooperation of regional WDNR administrative and Door County Zoning personnel,  We believe they helped to speed the permitting for this project more than would typically have been the case.  Our permits were received in mid-December, and at that time we had already set a tentative start date for digging.

There was also the verbal lining-up of a marine contractor.  Although we had Mike Kahr on the way, after he completed work at another site in Fish Creek, the scope of this project and the slippage of time brought further concern.  That led to our asking Roen by the middle of December to consider our job once their work in Egg Harbor was completed.  This they agreed to do.   We were fortunate to have the understanding and support from both Roen and Kahr.  Everyone understood that this dredging needed to be done ASAP.   As it happened, we are relying on the equipment of each marine contractor.

Critical in this project, too, is the willingness of Island men who own and drive dump trucks.  They've been willing to operate their trucks, loaded ten yards at a time, for five or six round trips - about 3.5 hours - per material barge load.  They appear at the Potato Dock after an advance phone call from Rich Ellefson.  Rich then works either on shore coordinating the trucking, or he monitors dredging progress and operates a skidster to assist cleaning out corners on the material barge.

Without the help of Pete Nehlsen, Dave Hanlin, David Small, Mike Jorgenson, Tim Ervin, Tom Jordan, Drew Rainsford and Jon Mann, plus one of Mike Kahr's dump trucks driven by Joel Gunnlaugsson (or myself, one day), and Hoyt Purinton supervising the pit dumping activities, the dredged material would soon stockpile on the barge and the entire project would be slowed.  Thanks also to Julian Hagen for consenting to receive spoils at his gravel pit.  Because the Hagen site is close, a truck can make the round trip in 30 minutes or less, when all goes smoothly.

Dave Hanlin, Rich Ellefson, Con McDonald
lent a hand in pulling slack on the hoist cable.

Rigging the cable for the clamshell used for offloading
stopped production Saturday evening for about 30 minutes.
Rich Ellefson, Dave Hanlin and others assisted Roen crew in
refastening the cable.

Tom Jordan drove his dump truck for every off-load, and he's also operated the Kahr excavator.  Saturday, I observed Tom as he climbed down from the excavator following a continuous, five-hour shift of digging.  (The excavator didn't have heat in the cab.)  Cold and stiff-legged, he crossed the barge deck to get behind the wheel of his truck.  Later that evening, while the bucket cable was undergoing repairs,  he laughed and joshed with other drivers, surprisingly fresh and enthusiastic.

View from behind the wheel of a Mack.  I kidded Pete Nehlsen about
"catching up with me," when actually he'd lapped
me earlier on the pit turn-around.   Good drivers can haul, dump, re-do
tailgate "sludge locks" and be positioned for
another load in less than 30 minutes.  It's no space shuttle cabin, with
half-a-dozen buttons and as many procedures for dumping, but I 
barely kept up.   A clutch failure sidelined my truck later, that evening.

Now, with a two-day holiday break coming, Roen's lead man Don Sarter indicated he'll return after New Year's with enough men for two shifts to enable round-the-clock digging.  The Roen crew is just as concerned about finishing the job for the Island as they are to complete their season and get their equipment safely back to homeport in Sturgeon Bay.

So, thanks for indulging me in yet one more report on dredging.  It's critical to the well-being of Washington Island to have this work done.  We could say that the stakes have never been higher.  For that, we're thankful for the willing participation of many hands during the recent days.
  -  Dick Purinton

DREDGING CONTINUES

Excavator on Roen barge.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

The barge and barge crew represent Roen Salvage.  The yellow excavator belongs to Mike Kahr of Death's Door Marine.  The excavator operator is Island contractor Tom Jordan.  It's a team effort to beat the weather clock.

In a process that often seems laborious but straightforward, one surprise was encountered this morning.  Rather than scraping against a ledge of stone, or  stones hard-packed in clay, the excavator has been bringing up buckets of loose cobblestones. This the sort of material you'd expect to find along an old beach line, maybe when the lake level was significantly shallower than it is today.  Occasional sharp-cornered, large rocks and clay are also present.

Switching to this machine for the time being hasn't appreciably slowed the dredging process much, but a shorter reach means the barge as work platform has to be frequently repositioned, and some time is lost then.  Jordan digs three full buckets in about the same time as it took to get one larger bucket with the crane.  But, once softer material is encountered again, the crane with clamshell will be put back in service.  

The material barge should be loaded before dark this afternoon, when unloading and trucking begin once again.    -  Dick Purinton

Potato Dock - Dredging a second barge load, 4:15 Thursday afternoon.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

Snowfall amounts were hard to measure this morning because of the wetness from rain and sleet.  Snowfall following the rain was compacted.   I estimated a slushy covering of perhaps 4-5 inches deep.  Temperatures this morning were still above 30 degrees, so it was easy to remove the mess from streets and sidewalks.  Washington Island, according to the weather radar, was in a region near northern Lake Michigan that was free from moisture as of 7 pm, and there was little to no accumulation after that. Quite a different story further south in state, we understand.

Several logs came up with the muck, maybe
old pier timbers? 

Dredging continued through Thursday afternoon, the 20th, concentrating in areas where decent production could be achieved.  Trucking commenced at 7 am today.  Roads had been cleared by Town plows by that time.   The material barge was clean by approximately 10:30 am, and then digging resumed.

In order to achieve removal of several high spots within the designated area for dredging, consisting of hardpan (stone, clay) that the crane's bucket can't bite into, a test dig was made with Tom Jordan's small excavator.  Based on Jordan's ability to rip into the hard crust, Roen is attempting to locate a larger excavator.  Weather has to calm considerably, as that heavy excavator will be loaded directly on to the contractor's construction barge from the Northport dock.

Dumping spoils at the Hagen gravel pit.

At the Hagen pit, off Michigan Road, trucks dumped their loads of black, mucky material over the bank, where it was further cleaned up and spread with a small loader.  The off-load was completed in just under three hours.

Today is mostly a day for clean-up of snow and slush, in anticipation of a better day tomorrow.  At the Island Schools, at least in the elementary wing, students are enjoying a pre-Christmas celebration.  School lets out at noon and the Christmas holidays begin for staff and students.

Joel Gunnlaugsson, ferry captain,
operated loader.

-  Dick Purinton  

11:00 am, Friday - test digging over hard spot.

Shoreline Show

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -


After driving steel pilings along the shore near the former Ship's Rib late Monday, island contractor Tom Jordan tried to drive his Volvo excavator from the ice surface.  But the climb from ice to a rock-filled wooden crib proved too much of an angle for the excavator to negotiate.  Tracks spun, ice buckled, and the machine soon wallowed into the mucky bottom.

That is how Jordan's excavator spent the night, with exhaust pipe and top of the motor slightly above water level.   Help was on the way on the Tuesday morning ferry.  Jordan had contacted Harbor Construction of Baileys Harbor who offered to lend a hand by pulling with their larger machine.   It took nearly an hour and a half of tugging, trying different purchase points before the solution was found that offered enough leverage to lift the tracks from the muck and level the machine.   But still, the partially-submerged machine wouldn't skid or roll up and over the sharp ledge.  The excavator's tracks simply would not turn, not without applied power from the motor.

The morning's activity had proven to be an excellent diversion from ice fishing, from work, or from just about any other island thing going on, and a crowd of onlookers had gathered along shore to see when and if the extraction would work.   About the time a few of the spectators broke for lunch, a better purchase was obtained with one excavator arm chained to the other.

Hoping for a long-shot, Tom checked his excavator's motor fluids to see if it was prudent to start up the machine.  After several bursts of compression followed by puffs of white smoke, the Volvo was running, surprising, considering its submergence in the murky, icy water the previous twelve hours.

The final step went smoothly:  the combined pull from two upland machines, plus power applied to his excavator's tracks, brought Jordan's machine up and over the ledge to solid ground on the shore.

Above:  Started and under its own power, the Volvo crawls toward the beach;
Below:  Tom Jordan expresses thanks to the Harbor Construction crew.

Dick Purinton -