BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. -- Boaters hitting the waters will likely see a strange sight as they leave the channel here in New Buffalo.
The Army Corps of Engineers is starting their dredging project in New Buffalo Harbor, though especially with the hot conditions, it seems a little strange to be starting the project right after the summer season begins.
As Liz Wilkinson, Operations Manager at the Grand Haven Army Corp of Engineers Office, tells me, the start of summer is one of the very few times the dredging project can be completed.
“In the fall and early spring, the wind really causes a lot of wave action that prevents dredging...so even a 10 or 15 mile an hour wind can cause one to one and a half foot waves and even those small waves can overtop the work barge so we really need really nice flat conditions on the lake to dredge and so we really only see those in the late spring and early summer especially on Lake Michigan," Wilkinson said.
Not only are the near 90 degrees a big headline today, but it’s also going to be breezy conditions with gusts peaking in the overnight hours near 30 mph. The dredging crew is working long shifts to make sure the channel is clear by the weekend, but will the weather cooperate?
Well through this afternoon, wave heights might get larger than one or two feet, which would put a stop to the work since the main ship can handle anything below that threshold. Wednesday will likely be a wash not only in the rain chances, but in the wave height again.
Wave heights likely taper again heading into the weekend, so work will likely be completed by the end of day Friday, but if you are headed to the beach and notice the crews, Wilkinson says,“So, there’s white buoys marking the placement site and orange buoys marking the pipeline that is submerged so boaters and swimmers should avoid those areas”
Again, the crew here is putting in 12-hour days to make sure that the harbor dredge gets done on time, but if they are still here this weekend, be mindful of your surroundings.