Grant to help fund effort to save park bluff

By KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM

Ozaukee Press staff

PORT WASHINGTON - The first step in stabilizing Port Washington’s north bluff will likely be taken next year, now that the city has received a $40,000 grant to help pay for the work.

The city learned last week that it will receive a Wisconsin Coastal Management Program grant to cover 40% of the estimated $100,000 cost of installing a drainage system along the bluff.

“We’re very happy to receive this grant,” Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven said, noting grants from the Coastal Management Program and the Fund for Lake Michigan have paid to design and engineer the system.

The drainage system is the least expensive and one of the most impactful steps the city can take in stabilizing the bluff, Vanden Noven said.

That’s because there is a sand seam running along the bluff, and the sand holds more water than the clay that makes up the remainder of the bluff, he said.

When the sand is wet, it acts as a lubricant and makes the bluff prone to slumping, Vanden Noven said.

“You have a higher level of instability than if it was all clay,” he said.

“If you look at pictures of the bluff, you can see the sand seam where the water’s seeping out.”

The drainage system will intercept the water, increasing the stability of the bluff.

“It doesn’t make it permanently stable,” Vanden Noven warned. “But it will lessen the frequency of bluff failures.”

The drainage system is one of three measures that Miller Engineers and Scientists recommended the city take to stabilize the bluff, which has collapsed in places throughout the years, blocking the entrance to the city’s north beach and eroding the east side of Upper Lake Park.

In addition to the drainage system, Miller Engineers also recommended the city stabilize the toe of the bluff by placing a revetment there and adding beach nourishment — additional sand strategically placed along the shore — and cutting back the bluff to create a more stable slope.

“If you do those three steps, we feel you will stabilize the bluff,” Vanden Noven said.

“You can maybe never achieve a bluff that’s 100% stable, but it’s as close as you can get.”

The drainage system, Vanden Noven said, is the least expensive portion of the stabilization plan and it will have a profound impact on the bluff.

Vanden Noven said he had hoped the city could implement the drainage system this year, but because it’s likely that the grant funds won’t be available until next year, the work will likely not be done until spring or summer of 2025.

While the grant is significant, it will not cover the full cost of the drainage system. Vanden Noven said he expects the city to include the remaining $60,000 needed for the system in the 2025 capital improvement budget.

Bluff erosion and slumping have been a point of discussion in the city for decades, but the high price tag associated with stabilization projects — and the idea of cutting into the bluff — have kept officials from moving forward with plans.

But as high lake levels over the past several years have caused significant slides and prompted the city to close north beach for a year, officials have taken another look at the concept.

Studies have shown the erosion is largely due to two factors — severe erosion at the base of the bluff and a seam of sand and saturated silt that runs along much of the bluff.