Middle Bass Island - State Park Marina Photos, August 24, 2008

Rob Stanley, the marina project manager, took my wife and me on a tour of the construction site today, and we got some great pictures. I put my wife in a few of the pictures to provide a sense of the scale of the rock and dirt piles. The information below was given to us by Rob during the tour. I received a separate note from Scott Doty of ODNR that as of today, Aug. 24, marina excavation is only 60% complete.

Outstanding progress is being made on the Middle Bass Island State Park marina project. Even though de-watering didn't start until July 11, almost two months late, the project is close to being back on schedule and pumping water back in will probably start in early October. By the time the project is complete, 285,000 cubic yards of dirt will have been removed from the peninsula in the old marina. Most of the new marina will be 10 feet deep at mean water levels, with a few parts being deeper to provide a better habitat for fish. Some parts of the marina will have small stones in the bottom to provide a better spawning area for fish. Other parts will have the old nutrient-laden topsoil put back in to allow repopulation of the native mussels.

A new breakwater on the lake at the northern end of the marina is becoming very visible in the pictures below. It already extends about 150-200 feet due east out into the lake. At its current eastern end, the breakwater is beginning to turn towards the southeast, and it will extend another 250-300 feet south/southeast to provide protection from nor'easter storms. The breakwater is being built with 4-8 ton blocks of armor stone from Marblehead averaging 6 tons each. One barge load is 720 tons, and 60 barge loads have been brought in so far. This breakwater is forming the northern edge of the new marina entrance.

Much of the outline of the vernal pool in the woods in Parcel B is also visible now. Located about 50-100 feet north of the pool at St. Hazard's resort, the vernal pool will be about one foot deep and will provide a habitat for wildlife including salamanders, turtles and birds. Piles of wood visible in the photos of that area will provide a better habitat in the water there, as well as a perch above water.

It is the project team's goal to have the earthwork, new inlet channel excavation, armor stone revetments and embankments, pipe pile installation and re-flooding of the marina completed before October 15, 2008. Under a separate contract, the docks for the marina will be manufactured over the winter and they will be installed in the spring of 2009. Other facilities, such as the harbor master building, restrooms and showers will be constructed at a later date.

Reproduction without written permission is forbidden for any purposes other than personal use.