Port Huron readies short-term fix for Black River Canal's eroding shoreline

Port Huron is taking steps to stabilize parts of the Black River Canal's eroding shoreline but officials said it is too soon to know what a long-term fix will look like, much like the rest of the city's miles of aging seawall. 

City Council members recently approved a nearly $21,000 engineering services agreement to bid out work and oversee construction of a short-term armoring of the canal in several spots, including near the tainter gate, midway on the southern bank, and at the opening at Lake Huron.

Public Works Director Eric Witter said the effort to shore up the canal is expected to buy “at least 10-plus years,” after recent years of high-water levels and heavy currents that carved into the banks of the waterway.

The city, Witter said, may have to look at alternative funding sources for long-term measures, though he added, “It’s still too early to tell.”

“That was the city’s effort to recognize that there was erosion going on the banks of the canal, and we need to lessen if not stop it on a short-term basis. And obviously, we don’t’ know what short-term means at this time,” Witter said in an interview. “But we did not authorize the consultant to do any long-term design or costing estimate until we get the short-term one done. So, we knew we had some financial constraints. Until we really bid this out, until they do their final design and bid documents and receive this back, we don’t know what the short-term’s even going to cost.”

City Manager James Freed said this week the long-term solution would likely be even costlier, and that the city would have to engage its township partners whose residents also utilize the canal. The city already works with Port Huron Township and Fort Gratiot on dredging the canal annually.

The latest canal action follows a 2020 decision that brought in an engineering firm to triage possible needs of the canal.

Citing the erosion issues, Freed said, “In fact, it’s going to undermine the tainter gate and our ability to control that” without addressing embankment needs.

“We actually have the threat of losing property to the south end of the canal,” he said.

Freed also said the canal project was a “good bell weather with what’s going on by the Zebra Bar and West Quay lot” and the city’s adjacent seawalls, which are slated to be replaced in the coming months in partnership with DTE Energy when part of the Quay lot is reconstructed.

And he told council that the city’s aging seawalls came up in discussion when he recently asked Witter “what keeps him up at night.”

“The miles and miles of seawall that’s 40 to 60 years old that we’re in charge of maintaining,” Freed said. “So, in the 20 to 30 years. If you think of the Edison Parkway, if you think of the seawall in front of the MOC … all the seawall that we’re responsible for, there is millions and millions and millions of repair and operating work that at some point we’re going to have to look at.”

Witter downplayed the height of concern for addressing the city’s seawall needs long-term, though he admitted planning for that infrastructure was different than other public works projects.

Sewer and water, as well as road improvements often have dedicated funding sources and grants, he said, versus the seawall work had no “real funding source” with a well as deep.

Witter said he’s been told seawalls are “good for 80ish years,” but that the challenge comes because many of the city’s shoreline infrastructure was last updated around the same time decades ago and would have to be replaced as quickly down the road.

“Just considering that the city is pretty unique in the fact that we have a lot of waterfront property being — not only Lake Huron but along the St. Clair River and the Black River,” he said. “The majority of the St. Clair River and Black River property the city owns all has seawall that was installed in a relatively short period of time in the ‘60s and ‘70s, maybe some of the ‘80s as well. So, I don’t have the complete length or mileage of seawall. I’ve never gotten that far, but obviously if you think about it, it’s pretty significant.”

Witter said both DTE and the city would be responsible for financing costs of about 100 feet of seawall on the Black River in the West Quay area.

He and Freed said a final bid for that work has to come back to council, as well. It wasn’t yet clear how costly that work would be.

When they evaluate such seawall or shoreline areas, Witter said it does come in stages over time as the infrastructure ages.

He said about 15 years ago, an area of seawall 90 feet east of the Zebra Bar area was discussed as “being probably the oldest seawall the city of Port Huron owns and maintains as part of the marina system.”

“So, fast forward up until a year or so ago when the property owner put us on notice (about) the condition of the sidewalk behind the Zebra Bar,” Witter said.

During last winter, the Black River sidewalk behind the bar was temporarily closed to pedestrians, and the city cited foundational issues related to the seawall.

A consultant told the city it was near the end of its life, and Witter said, “We were not in the position to spend a lot of money on the walking surface knowing that the seawall would have to be replaced.”

Freed said that should return at an upcoming council meeting before seawall work is underway, as would final bids to armor the canal.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.