Grant to fund emergency seawall repairs in Grosse Pointe Farms, Shores

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — The crumbling seawall along Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores is finally going to be getting at least some repairs.

Farms City Manager Shane Reeside said the Farms, with the help of state Rep. Joe Tate, was recently awarded a $750,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for 13 of the worst sections of seawall. The areas in greatest need of emergency repair were identified by engineers with Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc., and they consist of two spots in Grosse Pointe Shores and 11 in the Farms.

“This has been something in the making over the past (several) decades,” Reeside said of the continuing deterioration of the seawall.

He said damage “was really exacerbated” during high water levels in recent years; the lake reached a record high water mark in 2019.

Reeside said there “may be an opportunity to do more” spots if the cities and county can find ways to save on materials. For example, he said Wayne County might be able to supply them with aggregate for backfill. Repairs will involve driving a steel plate behind the seawall, on the land side, backfilling it with aggregate and then solidifying it with concrete, Reeside said.

It’s “a temporary fix, but a necessary fix,” Reeside said. “Hopefully, with the lower water levels, that deterioration won’t be as bad.”

He said Grosse Pointe Shores employed this repair method on a couple of locations a couple of years ago, and so far, it has held up.

Although water levels have gone down about 2 feet since 2019, Reeside said there are still “extensive breeches” in the seawall and voids — or empty spaces — in the revetment behind the seawall. While the Shores and Farms have always said the seawall is the responsibility of Wayne County, which built the original seawall and which is responsible for adjacent Lake Shore Road, the price tag for seawall replacement is beyond what the county, or even the county and the cities together, could cover.

In 2019, Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc. — engaged via an intergovernmental agreement with the Farms, Shores and Wayne County — assessed the seawall by doing soil borings and a topographical survey. HRC determined that it would cost roughly $23.8 million to replace the seawall. Engineers said that the seawall could be rebuilt by driving steel sheeting in front of the old concrete seawall — such that the sheeting stood taller than the existing seawall, but wasn’t visible from the road — and that sheeting could then be backfilled and tied back.

Now that they have a cost estimate for seawall replacement, Reeside said the cities and Wayne County have been trying to secure federal funding. He said they have an application under review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under NOAA’s U.S. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Reeside said they’ve also been working closely with U.S. Rep Brenda Lawrence and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters’ staffs in an effort to secure a community project funding appropriation next year.

But even if federal funding is approved, Reeside said it could take two or three years before construction would begin, and it might take place in phases. That’s why the MEDC grant is important, because it will address some of the most serious breaches and help to protect Lake Shore Road from being further undermined.

City Councilman Neil Sroka was concerned that any action by the city to make repairs to the seawall could lead the county to abdicate what the cities have always argued is the county’s legal obligation to maintain the seawall.

“Does this (project) in any way impact our position … that the seawall is a county (obligation)?” Sroka asked.

City Attorney William Burgess said this is something they explored thoroughly before recommending approval of the grant.

“I’m comfortable that we’re not compromising any of our legal rights,” Burgess said, saying that the grant was “appropriate for the council to approve.”

During a meeting June 13, the Farms City Council voted unanimously in favor of executing the MEDC grant for emergency seawall repairs.

Reeside said there are more locations in need of urgent repair in the Farms because Lake Shore Road is closer to the seawall in the Farms than it is in the Shores.