Work continues at Saxon Harbor; marina opening may be delayed

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Hurley - While work is continuing to rebuild Saxon Harbor, the planned reopening may be slightly delayed.

Iron County Forestry and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson told the Iron County Board of Supervisors Tuesday everyone is still shooting for the spring 2019 reopening for the marina. But he said additional project requirements and various delays in rebuilding the harbor after it was destroyed in the July 2016 storm could push that timeline back.

"We're pushing awful hard for it, but we're getting down to where I don't think we're going to make it," Peterson said. "We're pushing as hard as we can."

He said one roadblock came when the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance branch required an additional 170 feet of sheet pilings be installed in Oronto Creek near the marina spillway to strengthen the creek banks. The requirement came in response to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation filing paperwork regarding changes to the flood plain because of the construction.

While the county will receive assistance paying for the extra work - FEMA reimburses 75 percent of eligible costs for the Saxon Harbor rebuilding project, with Wisconsin Emergency Management paying an additional 12.5 percent of eligible costs - Peterson said it took time to design, plan and build.

"That cost us better than two weeks, otherwise the plan was to have the out-of-the-water marina stuff ready to bid today," Peterson said.

Even if the marina project isn't completed by the spring 2019 target, Peterson said Thursday he didn't expect the opening to be delayed too long.

"We're still pushing to try and get all the sidewalks ... that the docks attach to, we're still pushing to get all those done before winter," Peterson said, adding any delay would only push the opening back to late spring or early summer.

"We'd just be doing finishing work next spring."

Peterson said the campground opening continues to be projected for mid to late next summer.

Peterson told the board the rest of the work on the marina is going fairly well.

The county's contract with Ashland-based M. Jolma Inc. to remove debris and sediment from Oronto Creek between the marina's boat lift and Parker Creek, as well as Parker Creek from the confluence with Oronto to Lake Superior, is complete.

While the original bid for the project was $220,542, Peterson said the final price came in around $218,000.

Work continues on the larger, $2.77 million dredging contract with Roen Salvage - which includes dredging and rebuilding various parts of the harbor.

Peterson said the marina's north basin is entirely dredged, as is the channel the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for, with work under way dredging the south basin.

He anticipated the dredging be completed in early September.

The rainstorms this mid-June resulted in some additional damage to the harbor, according to Peterson, with 5,500 cubic yards of material washed into the marina and some pavement was lost. He said the county is working through the insurance process, but is also preparing paperwork for a second disaster to submit to FEMA, if needed.

The county will likely have to amend the dredging contract to account for the additional sediment washed into the marina.

"Roen has a contract for 23,500 yards of material, and there's 5,500 new yards on top of that. I can't get rid of one without the other," Peterson said.

He told the board the damage from the latest storms was to areas of the site that hadn't been completed yet, and the finished work wasn't damaged.

The Eau Claire-based McCabe Construction is the subcontractor responsible for the non-dredging part of Roen's contract, which includes repairs to the retaining wall around the basin, constructing the new boat landing, rebuilding the east boat launches, replacing the wood bumpers along the east wall of the marina and work on the marina's center peninsula.

Peterson said the north wall of the north basin is in and the south wall of the south basin was expected to have been completed Wednesday. Once done, work will begin on the marina's center.

He hopes to have all the pre-cast walls complete around the harbor in place by Sept. 1.

"We had some delay on that contract," Peterson said. "It was supposed to get started June 4, but we didn't get confirmation from FEMA until about the third week of June that they were going to approve those pre-cast walls. ... That's where we're running into a little bit of a delay there."

Peterson said the contract for the rest of the marina work is in the final stage and will hopefully be bid out in the coming weeks.

Regarding work on the campground, Peterson said the FEMA-required environmental assessment has been submitted and revisions are under way. He said he didn't expect there to be any significant issues with the assessment.

"We're not getting any kickback from FEMA on anything. However, it's taking time to move through the channels," Peterson said.

While the process is under way, the county hopes to bid out a mass excavation contract this fall.

"That's basically just dirt moving, and that's stuff they can work on in fall and into early winter before things freeze up," Peterson said. "There's close to 100,000 cubic of yards of material that need to be moved, so it's a pretty big dirt pile."

Along with the rebuilding of the harbor, work is also under way rebuilding County A at the harbor. The bridge deck for the new bridge over Oronto Creek has been poured and is currently curing before work continues.