Kincardine staff provided council with an update on the Sunset Drive lakeshore protection project at the most recent council meeting.
The project was approved as part of the 2021 Capital Budget, and the purpose of the project is to prevent further shoreline erosion and prevent the need for emergency repair work.
Director of Infrastructure & Development Adam Weishar says that they also had to make changes to their plans for the project after consulting with Saugeen Ojibway Nation.
“Through that consultation with SON, we had to make amendments to our proposed design. Essentially, the outcome of that is that we incorporated live staking into the design.”
They included live plants, such as dune grass in their design plans with those changes, in addition to the proposed retaining wall.
Sunset Drive is next to the water’s edge and due to the exposed surface significant debris, washouts, and erosion happen during storm events.
Adding that protection will significantly lower the risk to the shoreline area and reduce the amount of repair work made annually.
During the design changes and in trying to protect Sunset Drive from getting washed out, municipal staff are also moving the proposed retaining wall more to the east, making it closer to the road itself.
“And what that, at periods of when the water level is lower, it would provide a sandy beach area at the toe of the rock between that and the water level,” Weishar explains.
Due to a number of delays, the project has still not been started, and as a result of a number of delays, the cost has gone up.
Staff are requesting $60,000 in additional funding to cover the higher cost.
The original approved budget was $315,500 which included a grant amount of $251,741 through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP)’s COVID Stream Local Government Intake.
The contract for the project was awarded to Lavis Contracting in August 2021.