Posted on May 29, 2019
Local official says Portage Lake channel will be ‘first-class’
ONEKAMA — Onekama is known as the two lake town, and much of its economy is based on those two lakes.
The Portage Lake channel was first cut in 1871 to connect Portage Lake with Lake Michigan, but its walls have not received the maintenance required to keep them properly aligned to eliminate the mitigation of sand in the harbor.
Looking west toward Lake Michigan, the work on the south end of the Portage Lake channel is nearly completed. (Michelle Graves/News Advocate)
That changed when in 2017 the federally owned channel became recognized as a “Harbor of Refuge.” In late 2017, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, awarded a $4.2 million contract to King Co. of Holland for repairs to the Portage Lake revetment.
The work consists of removal of the existing concrete cap block and a portion of the timber revetment and timber piles; placement of new cantilever steel sheet pile wall, fill, toe, and splash stone and a new 5 feet wide reinforced concrete cap. A rubble mound wave attenuator will also be constructed on the west end of the south revetment.
“They’re finishing up on the southeast end of the wall and then they’re going to be doing some more work on the north side to complete the project, so I’m thinking maybe some time in June it looks like they’ll be done with it,” said Jim Mrozinski, chair of Onekama Township’s Portage Lake Harbor Commission. “They’re doing a great job. There’s a really good crew out there doing the job. It’s going to be first-class.”
Mrozinski said that the work crew hasn’t run into any unexpected problems.
“It’s just a matter of the work being a little more detailed. They are doing a little more than what we first anticipated them doing. They’re going to make the walk on the decks a little wider. They’re doing more on the ends of the channel wall for fisherman. Just enhancing it more or less,” he said.
The channel remains open to boating traffic while work is being done.
“The channel is not closed at all, you can go in and out easily. They put a buoy system up around their work so anyone in a boat is not going to run into any obstructions,” Mrozinski said.
For the past decade, Onekama Township and its Portage Lake Harbor Commission has actively pursued preventive measures to combat an essentially imminent collapse of the aging structure, which would spell disaster for the local economy.
The Portage Lake channel is open to boating traffic while work is being completed. (Michelle Graves/News Advocate)
“Without that channel there’d be a lot of people who wouldn’t be here for the summer, and we wouldn’t have any basis for the tourism of our town,” said Mrozinski. “It’s very important that the channel stays safe and the channel stays deep for boats coming in and out.”
He said when dredging work is completed, the channel will be 17-18 feet deep.
“We’ll have deep water for many years. It will help us a lot because dredging funds are hard to come by.” said Mrozinski. “Starting off with a new channel and deep water is going to be very important to the community as time passes it will probably be seven years if not longer before we have to re-dredge it again. Portage Lake has one of the widest channels on Lake Michigan. The wider the channel, generally, the deeper they stay in the center.”
In 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially classified the Portage Lake channel a “high risk of failure,” making it the only harbor with that status along the Great Lakes shorelines of Michigan.
In June of 2017, the Corps announced its plans for the upcoming project, which essentially calls for the deteriorating concrete base of the channel to be replaced by steel sheet metal walls.
Work began in spring 2018.
Source: pioneergroup.com
