Angry Lake Huron takes another swipe at Old Lakeshore

Troy Shantz A one-kilometre stretch of Old Lakeshore Road was closed last week when wind-whipped waves pummelled the Bright’s Grove shoreline and hurled football-sized rocks onto the street.

Troy Shantz

A one-kilometre stretch of Old Lakeshore Road was closed last week when wind-whipped waves pummelled the Bright’s Grove shoreline and hurled football-sized rocks onto the street.

“It was pretty severe weather,” said city construction manager Rob Williams. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it have such an impact.”

Worst hit was the bank supporting Old Lakeshore near Marion Avenue, where a $40,000 emergency repair was needed.

Work crews noted several sections of steel seawall had failed, causing erosion deep into the bank and under the asphalt, he said.

The bank was stabilized with rock and the roadway patched.

“With a lot of sections of our shoreline failing … our emergency repairs — as we’ve called them — are really patches,” Williams said.

“We’re concerned this is going to happen again, and I would imagine that it will happen again.”

Old Lakeshore was closed to traffic between and Helen Avenue and Centre Street for a day and reopened on Oct. 18.

Earlier this year, city council earmarked $600,000 for permanent shoreline protection, and a $475,000 account was set up for emergency repairs as needed, Williams said.

In September, more than $20 million in government funding was announced this summer to reinforce and repair low-lying trouble spots along the St. Clair River and Lake Huron shore at Sarnia.