DREDGING DANCE WORKED!

Long underwear and patience were the order of the day 
back in early March when Mike Kahr's barge returned to Detroit Harbor to 
dredge near the island docks.   Hoyt Purinton will be in short sleeves, and smiling, 
when he sees the Roen Company construction barge
enter port later this summer.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

There was never a certainty, but quiet optimism prevailed until the moment when the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Finance Committee approved a measure yesterday in the state's budget bill for $5.2 million to dredge the Detroit Harbor channel.  This is believed to be the most difficult hurdle to funding the channel dredging project.

Rep. Garey Bies said, “This is great news for the residents of Washington Island.   I’m thankful to the members of the committee who listened to my concerns and prioritized funding for the project."

Bies also commented on the potential economic loss should the channel impede regular ferry transit:

"While the safety of the residents of the Island is the biggest concern, I was also worried about the significant economic impact a loss of ferry access would mean to the Island and our district as a whole. Year-round access generates more than $16 million in annual economic activity through the transportation of passengers, vehicles and cargo." 

This is about the best news we've had in this corner of Lake Michigan since an effort was begun in August of 2007 to gain the attention of government officials. At that time, beginning with an historic, in-person visit by then sitting Senator Russel Feingold, the project was posed but water levels weren't as extreme as they soon became during late 2012.   Several meetings attended by local, state and federal officials brought sympathy for our situation, and behind-the-scenes conversations took place, but the effort didn't seem to be of a serious nature until work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Harbor Assistance Program (HAP) began in 2011.

Last June, as you may recall, Washington Island's 2012 HAP grant was turned down, and for several good reasons.  Efforts were made to provide better engineering data, and this was augmented by a Wisconsin HAP grant for approximately $150,000 late in 2012.  Bottom core samples, exacting yardage fignure - in short, a project ready for bids, resulted from that grant, and it culminated in three contractor bids for the actual project last month.  While no official selection has been made, the Roen Salvage Company of Sturgeon Bay was low bidder and is expected to be awarded the contract once the HAP funds are officially secured.   The $5.2 million figure represented the combined total of the Roen bid, plus engineering fees, plus contingency, plus anticipated island road repair costs from heavy truck traffic.

The Joint Finance Committee's vote (12 to 4) won't be the final hurdle.   Action is still needed in the State Senate and Assembly, with the governor's signature after that.    The earliest possible formal, final approval would take place in late June as the state's two-year budget is approved.

The significance of this recent action, put forward by our State Senator Frank Lasee and his staff members, and Garey Bies and his staff on behalf of Washington Island, is that the money is marked for Detroit Harbor.   Other ports will have a chance to apply for other available money in the HAP grant pool, but Washington Island's project has been underscored as being essential and not to be upstaged by other needed commercial port work.

Thanks through email, phone call or letter is due Senator Lasee, Rep. Bies for their legislative work, and to members of the Town of Washington Board who stuck with the HAP program application process through a second round.   
Contact information for Rep. Garey Bies:  
         Toll free phone:   888482-0001     or email:       Rep.Bies@legis.state.wi.us
                     P.O. Box 8952    Madison, Wisconsin   53718-8952
State Senator Frank Lasee's contact information:  
         Phone:   608-266-3512                       email:      Sen.Lasee@legis.wisconsin.gov        
                       State Capitol Rm. 3165, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, Wisconsin  53708

Town Chairman Joel Gunnlaugsson took
the call with the good news from Rep. Garey Bies at the Northport
pier late Tuesday afternoon.

Other good news coupled with this extraordinary legislative action for Washington Island is that Lake Michigan's level continues to rise slightly each week.   In yesterday's brisk, southerly breeze, water levels were at their highest since sometime in early August of 2012.

-   Dick Purinton

Buoys Replaced By Structures

Detroit Harbor -

Two of the floating aids in the Detroit Harbor channel, buoys number 4 and 5, are being replaced by permanent structures.  The new aids to navigation will be solid cylinders of steel, cement and stone, anchored by nine H-piles into bedrock, and topped with a steel pole upon which will be a light, solar panel and battery.

This contract, estimated to be in the half-million dollar range, was bid to the Rock company of Pontiac, Michigan.  Door County marine contractor Roen Salvage, of Sturgeon Bay, is the major sub-contractor.  Other subcontractors include the drilling company that bored the holes for the pilings, and suppliers of the buoy cylinders and light towers.

Two of Roen's work barges are shown in the photo here shortly after they began the project.   Pipes of 14" diameter were set into the bottom a the buoy locations, then used as guides as they were drilled out, down three feet into bedrock.  Nine H-piles per navigation aid were then inserted into the drilled holes inside each pipe, and then epoxied into place using a special grout mixed with sand.   The pipes were removed once the epoxy was set

These permanent aids to navigation had been proposed for several years by the U. S. Coast Guard, but funding wasn't in hand until this fiscal year.   The new aids should eliminate drift from station (something that did occur with the older, floating buoys, especially as ice forced against them).  Batteries, solar panels and bulbs can be accessed easily for servicing by Coast Guard Aids to Navigation team members by small boat.  Formerly, a shallow-draft Coast Guard vessel would cross the lake from its home port in Muskegon to lift the floating aids with an A-frame, and its crew would inspect each chain and sinker.  The buoys would then be repainted, with chain replaced, if needed, before being reset on station.  

The tops of the new 12-ft. diameter cylinders will stand approximately 7 1/2 feet above water level, and  have a nearly 20-ft. mast on top of that.  These will make a strong target on radar scopes, and they will also be more easily seen during nighttime or low visibility by vessel operators.  (One of two cylinders is shown in the photo below as it is lifted from the semi to the Roen work barge, alongside Northport Pier.)

Roen Salvage is the largest and oldest marine contractor in the area.  This company typically bids on  marine construction projects such as dredging, break wall and dock construction around the Great Lakes.  From Detroit Harbor, this rig will prepare to sail to the upper St. Mary's River, where several similar, but larger, navigational aids will be constructed.  When that job is completed, the construction equipment will be towed to Duluth harbor at the western end of Lake Superior for another project that will include dredging of 200,000 cu. yds. and driving pilings for commercial shipping.

Actual work on the Detroit Harbor aids to navigation began Monday, May 24, after the equipment had been mobilized to the island. Work is expected to be completed - barring delays in supply of the light towers - by Friday, June 8th.   The steel cylinders that shape the base of the aids and the light pole assemblies are pre-fab items subbed to another company in the Fox Valley.  Delays in receiving those items could possibly prolong the project's completion.

Shown below is Don Sarter, Construction Supervisor and a 39-year Roen employee, who also operates the tug Stephan M. Asher that tows and positions the work barges.

Not yet known, but to be determined soon, is the fate of the dredging application by the Town of Washington for the Detroit Harbor channel.  This application, submitted earlier this calendar year, is believed to have cleared the citizen's committee that reviews such applications.  If so, it now awaits further review for approval by the WISDOT secretary, and finally, approval and signature must be given by Wisconsin's governor.   If approval is given and funding is released, this would mean a huge improvement for Washington Island, a major dredging operation that will widen and deepen a  navigation channel last touched in 1937!

This project could possibly be undertaken yet this calendar year.  However, approval and funding dollars through a Wisconsin Harbor Assistance Program Grant to the Town of Washington must first receive approval in order for any dollars to be allocated.  There were four or five other Wisconsin commercial port applicants, each with worthy projects competing for those same dollars.

-  Dick Purinton