Posted on January 30, 2018
By Andre Stepankowsky, tdn.com
A massive project to rehabilitate the North Jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River will force the closures of some roads and parking lots at Cape Disappointment State Park near Ilwaco starting next month. The closures will be in place much of the next two years.
The jetty itself, North Jetty Road and nearby parking lots will be closed to public access from Feb. 12 to Oct. 30 this year and again from March 17 to Nov. 1 in 2019, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Benson and Waikiki beaches, two of the most popular places in the park, will not be affected by the work and will remain open during construction.
The corps built the jetties between 1885 and 1939. The system consists of three “rubble-mound” jetties: North Jetty, South Jetty and Jetty A. The jetties, which together total 9.7 miles in length, minimize navigation channel maintenance dredging and make passage safer for vessels transiting between the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River.
All three jetties have needed major rehabilitation because currents and wave action have eroded them, causing the huge boulders that they’re made of to topple into the sea. Work on Jetty A was completed last year. The North Jetty will undergo repairs during the next two years under a $27.5 million contract with Chico, Calif., contractor JE McAmis Inc., according to the corps. The South Jetty, by far the longest of the three, is slated for repairs from 2019 to 23.
Rehab work to the North Jetty involves giant equipment capable of moving stones as large as cars and small pickups. The largest stones will weigh up to 30 tons each. In all, about 140,000 tons of rock must be placed on the 2.5-mile jetty to shore it up for several more decades.
“The idea with this is that hopefully we don’t have to go back there for another 50 years,” said Jeff Henon, spokesman for the corps Portland District.
Without the jetty system, it would be impossible for ocean-going cargo vessels to enter and leave the river. As such, the jetty system is critical to the continued flow of billions of dollars worth of commerce that moves through the Columbia annually.
Source: TDN.com
