Work to save Port bluff scheduled for spring

The City of Port Washington will take the first steps toward bluff stabilization this spring.

Last week, the Common Council approved a grant agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Administration that will pay 40%, or about $40,000, of the estimated cost of installing drain lines along the Upper Lake Park bluff.

The lines will help remove water from the sand seams, which hold more water than the adjoining clay, in the hill. The moist sand acts as a lubricant, making the bluff prone to slumping.

“We have the plans ready to go. We’re ready to go out for bids (for the project),” Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven said.

City Engineer Roger Strohm said Tuesday that he expects the work to begin by May and take two to three weeks to complete.

Three drain lines will be installed from the stairs that lead to the beach north, he said, covering about half the bluff along the park.

“It should be a big benefit for a relatively low cost,” Strohm said, noting that the sand seams are one of two primary causes of bluff collapses.

The city will be required to pay $60,000 for the work, funding Strohm said is in the 2026 budget.

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.

The revetment would be at least partially buried, making it less obtrusive to people using the beach.

Strohm said that he expects the next step in addressing bluff stability will likely be protecting the toe of the hillside, in part because it’s expected to cost less than cutting back the bluff.

When that work is done will depend on when the city acquires funding for it, he said.

“It’s going to require a much bigger grant,” Strohm said.

The cost of the 480-foot-long revetment to prevent erosion of the toe of the bluff was estimated at $600,000 in 2024, while adding sand to the 1,000 feet of the beach to “nourish” it was estimated to cost $350,000.

Bluff erosion is nothing new for the city. In the 1980s and 90s, it wasn’t uncommon for large portions of the bluff to collapse.

In April 1993, a huge mudslide took hundreds of thousands of pounds of earth down the side of the bluff and completely across the beach, leaving a mound of clay-like earth roughly 12 feet high.

At other times, the slumping hillside blocked the entrance to the beach and brought the hillside to within 10 feet of the Upper Lake Park road in places.   

But the high price tag associated with stabilization projects — and the idea of cutting into the bluff — kept officials from moving forward with plans in the past.

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

The current plan, which concentrates efforts on the south end of the bluff, which is less stable than the north end, was created by Miller Engineers and Scientists of Sheboygan and endorsed by officials three years ago.