Erosion rehab work has finally started along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Niagara County. The Town of Porter just recently took a major step in dealing with a $500,000 shoreline improvement project in the Fort Niagara Beach neighborhood.
An article in Niagara Frontier Publications reported that utilizing $350,000 in grant funding from the Community Block Grant Development Program paid for stabilizing a stretch of badly eroded lakeshore which is owned by the town and located next to the foot of Park Avenue. Mark Cerrone Construction put in large boulders and relocated soils so there wouldn't be further shore damage.
The town is now continuing the shoreline rehabilitation using the state grant funding at Fort Niagara Beach. Additional shore enhancements are expected to be done by Applied Ecological Services of Grand Island.
This project is part of a growing list of shore work that is taking place in Niagara County.
Here is a listing of shore work projects in this county due to worsening Lake Ontario flooding conditions:
- 11 lakeshore-area rehab projects stretching from Newfane to Youngstown
- Projects along the Lake Ontario waterfront include the $14 million Olcott Harbor Breakwater in the town of Newfane
- $4.4 million Wilson Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Village of Wilson
- $3.6 million Sunset Island West Barrier Bar in the Town of Wilson
- $2.1 million Village of Youngstown Waterfront Project
- $1.2 million Lewiston Landing rehab in the Village of Lewiston was completed earlier this year
Total cost of those projects amount to $31,794,688 in improvements to benefit Niagara County lakeshore communities, not including the Porter shore rehab work.
An announcement just before Thanksgiving by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District, was made regarding their plans for an emergency shoreline protection project in the Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown.
According to the Corps, the proposed Old Fort Niagara project would include the following:
- Installation of an armor stone revetment with mechanically stabilized earth and vegetative plantings
- Revetment with MSE and plantings start at the existing eastern terminus of the historic masonry wall and extend 400 feet along eroding shoreline bluff on the lakeshore
- Two layer armor stone would be placed on top of underlayment stone and bedding stone on top of slope planned for front of eroding bluff
- At top of armor stone revetment, an MSE bench would be constructed that will serve as splashpad and partial retaining structure for upper slope crest for platform for plantings
- 0.5 acre of upper portion of the bluff would include bioengineering and or planting
The Corps said it is continuing its reviews of the project for compliance with state and federal laws. It noted an integrated detailed project report is now in the process of being drafted and will be released for public review and comment in 2021.
