By Elizabeth Miller
After 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, the breakwater on Cleveland’s east harbor suffered $31 million dollars worth of damage. A local company helped repair and outfit the breakwater with concrete blocks to prevent storm damage from happening again.
Cleveland’s project involves 4400 feet of dolosse, concrete blocks shaped like a T and meant to deflect waves.
Lieutenant Colonel Adam Czekanski with the US Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District says the damage from Hurricane Sandy resulted in the District’s largest repair project. "Here in the Cleveland area specifically, on Lake Erie in the Cleveland area, we had wind speeds that were approaching 70 miles per hour and waves that crested more than 20 ft. in height. It resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of damages and thousands of people without power for extended periods of time."
The breakwater project cost $36 million. The dolosse were cast by a company in Valley View, with the actual repair work completed by a company in Muskegon, Michigan. The corps’ Buffalo District started out with 23 projects related to Sandy. 4 years later, 20 of those projects have been completed.