The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel and equipment from Kewaunee are mobilized at the City of Two Rivers’ Lake Michigan harbor to undertake emergency repairs to the south breakwater.
According to the city report, the tugs Kenosha and Racine, and the crane barge Manitowoc are at work on this project.
The south breakwater was extended further into Lake Michigan in 2003, in conjunction with a repair and rehabilitation project in 2003, to serve as a “wave attenuating structure.” The new structure was essentially a rubble mound with a poured concrete cap/walkway, intended to help dissipate the energy of waves rolling into the harbor channel from Lake Michigan.
The need for emergency repairs was first noted in the Summer of 2015, when local U.S. Coast Guard personnel noticed that armor stone around the tip of the breakwater had settled or become displaced, causing the concrete walkway to be undermined.
Over the next week, USACE will be placing small diameter stone along either side of the walkway at the outer end of the pier, to block off the sides of the void beneath the walkway.
They will bore holes through the concrete cap and concrete trucks will drive out onto the pier (but not onto the 2003 extension) to pump an estimated 20-30 cubic yards of concrete into the void.
Additional armor stone will then be placed around the outer tip of the structure, to better protect it against the forces of Lake Michigan.