Posted on May 17, 2020
High lake levels underscore the need for millions of dollars in dock wall improvements.
A multimillion-dollar dose of relief and protection is coming to East Dobbins Landing’s shoreline.
Crews from Perry Construction Co. have started work on a new $2.65 million dock wall along the edge of Presque Isle Bay that stretches from State Street east to the area near Rum Runners at 133 East Dobbins Landing.
The existing dock wall is crumbling in spots after decades of battering by waves. The project will create a 730-foot-long dock wall that is roughly 1 foot higher than the existing wall; extend East Dobbins Landing by 15 feet to the north, into Presque Isle Bay; and include green space and sidewalks along the strip that runs parallel to the shore.
The project — which also aims to make the area more attractive for future development — is the first of several dock wall repairs the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority hopes to make over the next several years, and the collective price tag will likely be more than $20 million.
A consultant hired by the authority has identified dock wall deterioration at several of the authority’s waterfront properties as a significant concern.
The East Dobbins Landing work is partially funded by a $1.6 million grant the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation awarded to the Port Authority in October 2018, “and we have requested additional grant funding to cover the total project cost,” said Brenda Sandberg, the Port Authority’s executive director.
Sandberg said Perry Construction could be finished as soon as Sept. 1. Preliminary work, such as construction fencing, started April 30. The project can now move to full construction now that Gov. Tom Wolf lifted restrictions on construction put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tim Sedney is pleased that the dock wall work will begin soon.
“I’m concerned about erosion not only on East Dobbins, but at Presque Isle State Park and other areas of (shoreline) on Lake Erie,” said Sedney, 56, the owner of both Rum Runners and Woody’s Backwater Barge & Grill, located on the eastern edge of East Dobbins Landing.
“I’m all in favor of a new sea wall,” “Sedney said.
Sedney also owns Rum Runners Cove, which is in the eastern section of the parking garage for the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel complex on the Sassafras Street pier.
The East Dobbins Landing renovations, Sedney said, will give patrons a safer and more direct path to his businesses, and could also mitigate the kind of flooding the area saw in early April, when high winds and waves swamped the area, pushing “8 to 10 inches” of water into Rum Runners.
A new dock wall “will protect us from the wave action, the surges you sometimes get in bad weather,” Sedney said. “The wall is actually collapsing and undermined in several areas down here.”
Infrastructure needs
The East Dobbins Landing dock wall work is significant, Sandberg said, for a few reasons.
One is concern about rising water levels in Lake Erie. The Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has reported that high water levels could set records throughout the Great Lakes over the next six months, with some lakes reaching their highest-ever recorded levels.
The Corps reported that Lake Erie broke its April record last month, rising 4 inches to 574.31 feet, even though the watershed has seen below-average precipitation.
“Lake levels are always a concern for us, because the dock walls are protecting our properties,” Sandberg said.
Second, the Port Authority knows that it needs to make extensive long-term dock wall repairs at a number of its waterfront properties. That fact was pointed out in the Port Authority’s master plan for bayfront improvements, unveiled in 2018.
As part of that plan, which suggests various improvements that should be made by 2038, the authority’s consultant, Albert Kahn Associates, of Detroit, identified a number of “seawall and shoring deficiencies” at authority-owned properties along Presque Isle Bay, including East Dobbins Landing.
Other dock walls that need repairs, according to the master plan, include those located at the Bay Harbor and Commodore Perry yacht clubs; Liberty Park; Donjon Shipbuilding & Repair off East Bayfront Parkway; the Chestnut Street boat ramp; and near the former cruise boat terminal at the foot of Holland Street, which houses the Port Authority’s offices.
The authority’s master plan does not put a price tag on the dock wall upgrades. But Sandberg said wide-ranging dock wall repairs would likely cost at least $20 million, on top of the Dobbins Landing project.
Sandberg said that the Port Authority is pursuing a $2.6 million grant to fix the dock wall at Liberty Park. The money would come via PennPorts, a state agency that promotes investment, water-related tourism, commerce and port development.
The Liberty Park dock wall “was identified as the next immediate need for infrastructure,” Sandberg said, adding that the Port Authority is continually “identifying short-, medium- and long-term infrastructure needs” and how to pay for them.
“High lake levels have certainly brought additional focus to our infrastructure needs,” Sandberg said. “Unfortunately these (dock wall) projects are not ones that generate revenue for the Port Authority. … They are part of our mission of providing safe infrastructure for the community.
“That can sometimes be an issue in finding a grant for a certain project,” Sandberg said. “The challenge is to find the right grant for the right project.”
Bayfront protection
Casey Wells, executive director of Erie Events, pays close attention to the integrity of bayfront dock walls owned by the Port Authority. Several of them help protect properties such as the Bayfront Convention Center and the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel. Erie Events developed and helps oversee the properties.
“We had an area near the Sheraton and the Convention Center, near the Bayfront Parkway, where there’s been some wall erosion and we had to try to stabilize it with concrete,” Wells said. “It’s something we continue to assess.”
Wells pointed out that sea walls near two other Erie Events-managed properties — the Courtyard by Marriott Erie Bayfront Hotel and the 1,100-foot bayfront walkway that borders that hotel and the former GAF Materials Corp. site — are sound and not deteriorating.
Those dock walls were newly constructed and installed as part of a $7 million environmental cleanup of the former shingle plant property, completed in 2014.
“We’ve had to do some repairs in the past to protect walkways and some other areas, but we’re not dealing with anything near what the Port Authority has dealt with on East Dobbins Landing for example,” Wells said.
Jerry Skrypzak is president of the Save Our Native Species of Lake Erie fishing advocacy group. He said dock wall repairs and continued maintenance are crucial along Erie’s bayfront.
“If you don’t fix them, some of these walls are going to go under,” Skrypzak said. “And if that happens, the areas near them are going to take a pounding.”
Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNflowers.
Source: goerie
