Years of Port breakwater work near an end

Work to repair Port Washington’s crumbling breakwater is expected to be completed next month, Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven told the Common Council Tuesday.

Michels Corp. of Brownsville is on site and has about three weeks of work on the far east side of the breakwater to complete, Vanden Noven said.

“They’ve done all the work to the base concrete,” he said. “They’re laying the walkway itself, the cap.”

The $1.2 million project began last fall with work paused over the winter. Michels resumed work in June, Vanden Noven said, and is expected to be done by mid-September.

But, he cautioned, how far into September the project actually goes will depend on the weather.

The project — the last phase of the city’s breakwater improvement work — required Michels to install rebar in the base of the structure, then remove the loose and broken concrete on the base. They then inserted rebar into the concrete to hold the new walkway, which will be poured in place.

The new walkway will be 10 inches thick and six feet wide, Vanden Noven said, and it will traverse the easternmost 1,000 feet of the breakwater.

The city received a $550,000 grant to help offset the cost of the project.

Vanden Noven also told aldermen that the railing for the gateway to the breakwater will be installed this week, with the work expected to be completed by Friday.

The railing and ramp connecting the gateway to the steel cell structure on the breakwater were damaged in a storm last winter, and the city paid Midwest Stairs and Iron $13,449 to replace it.

The railing, which has been damaged in each of the last two winters, will be removed during the winter in the future, officials said, to avoid further damage to it.

The breakwater will be closed when the railing is removed, officials have said.