Broken breakwater can’t be fixed
Taxpayers not on the hook to replace floating structure because it remains under warranty
The West Harbour’s multimilliondollar broken breakwater must be replaced.
On the upside, city taxpayers won’t foot the bill to swap out the not-so-buoyant steel structure for a new — and hopefully better-designed — model, said city waterfront manager Gavin Norman.
“It was under warranty, it sank, so it gets replaced,” he said. “We would expect a new breakwater to be in place in time for the spring (boating) season.”
An intense April windstorm partially sunk a 300-metre section of breakwater, which is made up of floating steel tubes meant to protect sailboats in the Harbour West Marina.
The resulting unchecked waves ripped out more than a dozen finger
piers, and damaged the shoreline and electrical systems in the marina. The city has filed an insurance claim for $300,000 to cover the damages.
The swamped breakwater was temporarily refloated this summer with the help of 1,200 airfilled blue barrels while the city and contractor Kehoe Marine Construction tried to figure out what went wrong.
In recent days, residents have watched the company do more maintenance on the beleaguered structure nearest Pier 8 — and chase down floating barrels cut loose in the most recent windstorm.
Norman said “a lot of study” went into figuring out whether the damage was due to poor design or botched installation. Ultimately, the contractor’s insurer made the call to replace the structure, he said.
He emphasized the city won’t pay to replace the structure — but it will get to sign off on a new and “more robust” design.
Norman said the longest breakwater structure was determined to be too inflexible to deal with the constant pounding of wind-driven waves. (Three, much shorter floating breakwalls will be retained.)
He expects the new design to incorporate “redundancies” like plastic, air-filled balls inside the floating steel tubes, for example. It won’t include a fixed breakwall.
The city decided to install a $3.3-million floating breakwater in 2016 rather than a fixed structure that would have cost 10 times more and interfered with underwater habitat.
Boaters with the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club are happy to hear a new, “more permanent” solution is on the way, said past-president Barry Tyler, who added members of the club have been offered the chance to “provide input” on the new breakwater design.
The club takes care of 106 boat slips in the marina while the Hamilton Port Authority manages another 300.
“It has been an interesting year at the marina,” Tyler said, noting the storm damage in the spring followed by a late summer plague of rotting algae.
“But I have to give the city and (contractor Kehoe) credit. Whenever we had a concern, they were on top of it.”