MARQUETTE — Numerous downed and unstable trees. Heavy erosion damage from wave action and storm surge. No beach. Two- to 5-foot drops with 50% of tree-covered sand dunes eroded.

These are a few of the terms used by Marquette city officials to describe the state of the shoreline along Lakeshore Boulevard between Fair Avenue and Pine Street after significant winds and waves damaged the area during an Oct. 16 storm.

That portion of the road has been closed since then, as the city has “not experienced this severe erosion along this stretch until this fall.”

The Marquette City Commission at its meeting Monday voted 5-2 to approve emergency work to armor the stormwater outlet near Lakeview Arena, as well as shoreline extending 400 feet south and 900 feet north from that area. The work will be done by Smith Construction for $154,000.

“If it wasn’t for the damage we saw from those couple days of storm there, we probably wouldn’t be standing here,” said Scott Cambensy, superintendent of the city’s public works department. “But it’s happened very quickly toward the end here to raise this immediate concern.”

The work started earlier this week, with crews cleaning up fallen trees. The plan is to then armor the stormwater outlet and the roughly 400 feet south of the outlet, then crews “will begin moving north once this critical area is taken care of,” Marquette City Manager Mike Angeli said.

The project is estimated to take 28 to 30 working days from its start, dependent on weather and lake conditions, Cambensy said.

An initial proposal was to approve up to $12,650 for Smith Construction to armor the Lakeview Arena stormwater outlet along Lakeshore Boulevard, as stabilization of the bank was “imperative to avoid further compromising the stormwater outlet and the bridge infrastructure valued at over $400,000,” city notes state.

However, the scope of the project, and its price tag, was expanded at Monday’s meeting to include shoreline 400 feet south and 900 feet north from the outlet.

“We feel that this type of armoring will be sufficient to keep that shoreline intact for some time to come,” Angeli told commissioners.

While the project wasn’t included in the 2020 budget, Angeli said the city’s chief financial officer, Gary Simpson, gave assurances the project could be covered within budget adjustments at the end of the year, with use of the city’s savings account being a last-resort option.

Commissioners Jenna Smith and Jenn Hill said they could not support the work with such a short time to consider the project and its implications.

“I think we need to think hard about that as a community as we are dealing with climate change. I’m not going to be able to support this,” Hill said. “Let’s have a better conversation. I trust that you guys know a lot about how to address things, but I think we need to be asking some bigger questions.”

Commissioner Dave Campana said he believed “we probably should have started reinforcing this yesterday,” because “if we get a storm tomorrow, it could take out that road.”

Commissioner Paul Schloegel said he believes the stone armoring could help rebuild the beach.

“If you put stone there right now, at some point in time — it’s not going to be that long — you will actually see sand catch itself on the other side of that stone and it will eventually work its way back to building a beach on the other side of that stone,” he said.

Officials with the Superior Watershed Partnership met with city officials Thursday to explore alternate approaches to the project.

The SWP supported armoring the outlet and the 400 feet of shoreline south of the outlet, but wanted to see “only clean sand be used as fill and temporary selective placement of any rock that could be removed if the city decides on natural restoration in the future,” SWP Executive Director Carl Lindquist said in an email. “In short, design to both protect the road now but be able to remove some rock and restore to natural beach/dune conditions if they decide to.”

After the Thursday meeting, the city did agree to use “beach-type sand as part of the process instead of other types of fill that we might normally use,” Angeli said in an email.

“In this case, SWP believes — and we agree — that any fill used for this project should be sand that is as similar as possible to what already exists along that shoreline,” Angeli said.

Using the sand fill, rather than a dirt fill as the city initially intended, can open up more possibilities for natural restoration, Lindquist said.

“What they do now is important in determining future restoration options,” he said, noting the SWP “applauds the city commission, city manager and city staff for their quick response to an emergency coastal erosion problem aggravated by high lake levels and more intense storms.”

Eventually, the SWP would like to see around 2,000 feet of Lakeshore Boulevard between Fair Avenue and Pine Street be rerouted further inland and around Lakeview Arena to restore the natural dune and swale in the area, as the organization believes this would save around 15% of the beach in the city while connecting it to the 10 acres of coastal wetlands currently on the opposite side of the road.

Angeli said while “we would all like to see a natural restoration of this area,” he emphasized “our first priority is to preserve the road.”

“The city commission’s direction — and I agree — is that there is strong support in the community to maintain motorized access along the lakeshore,” Angeli said. “In order to do that we need to do some immediate armoring in this area, which is what we are in the process of completing now.”

Lindquist said he believes the SWP could secure grant funding to support such a project and hopes it could potentially be tied in with the $12.3 million Lakeshore Boulevard Relocation Project, which is scheduled to take place next summer north of the boulevard’s damaged Pine Street-Fair Avenue section.

“It could very well be that a future generation and/or commission may decide to abandon this section all together, but that will need considerable discussion and public input,” Angeli said.

“We are still moving ahead with the relocation of Lakeshore (Boulevard) between Hawley and Wright (streets) as planned; however, (we) have no plans to do anything in conjunction with the road we are talking about. It would take a lot more public discussion and planning, not to mention money.”

While it can be difficult to make major decisions about the future of a stretch of road on short notice, the discussions between the two entities were a valuable part of the process, Angeli and Lindquist said.

“The city and SWP have a long partnership of collaborating on innovative projects that protect Lake Superior,” Lindquist said. “With high lake levels and more intense storm problems like this will continue to arise and it’s good to know that even under the pressure of disaster response situations that alternatives can still be considered and elements can be incorporated into emergency stabilization work that would make environmental restoration easier and less expensive if the city changes direction in the future.”

Angeli echoed this statement, saying: “We have worked extensively and well with the SWP and consider them a great asset to the city and community in general. This may be one area where we may have slightly differing goals, but we’re always able to sit down and find common ground which usually results in satisfying everyone.”

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. Her email address is cbrown@miningjournal.net.