A major restoration effort has been completed along the border with Wisconsin at Illinois Beach State Park in Lake County. Announced in 2019 with work kicking off last year, the work helped restore part of the park’s 6.5 mile shoreline while protecting it from future erosion. The project was led by the state with SmithGroup working on its design and Michels Construction having executed the work.
View of completed portion of shoreline reconstruction via Google Maps
The park itself contains roughly 10 percent of the state’s shoreline, however rising water levels and strengthening storms have led to mass erosion which reached up to 100 feet of coast per year in some portions. Because of this, Winthrop Harbor Beach was closed a few years ago as the lake reached the parking lot, destroying crucial natural habitats in its wake.
View of eroded beach via Google Maps
Diagram of shoreline protection plan by SmithGroup
Now, 22 off-shore rock breakwaters stand across the park protecting the newly rebuilt sand shoreline. Designed with the local ecosystem in mind, the structures required over 300,000 of stone including durable granite quarried in Wisconsin as it can endure the constant crashes of the waves. The work also included 430,000 cubic yards of sand to replenish the aforementioned beach.
View of eroded beach via Google Maps
These new breakwaters include various types of permanent nests above water and within the rock as well. They also include submerged aquatic gardens along the inner sides with sunken trees and reclaimed concrete blocks will be used to create various habitats for species like mudpuppies and yellow perch per WTTW.
Diagram of shoreline protection plan by SmithGroup
Meanwhile the restored beaches, dunes, and coastal vegetation creates a new habitat for endangered species like the piping plover. Locals also hope this will bolster tourism to the park from the surrounding areas. With a total cost of $73 million, the project was funded by the state’s $45 billion infrastructure plan which mostly went to roads and bridges.
Breakwater diagram via State of Illinois
However this isn’t the only major project working towards the benefit of the Great Lakes recently. Earlier this year a bi-partisan bill was introduced in Michigan in order to set aside $200 million towards fully mapping the bottom of all five lakes. Efforts for this are being led by the Great Lakes Observing System who will utilize high-definition equipment.
View of beach during construction via Google Maps
Not much is known about the bottom’s of these massive bodies of water that cover 94,250 square miles, with the last effort to fully map them being in the 1970s. Knowing this information will help study how erosion is occurring, underwater hazards and infrastructure, as well as identify fisheries and inform storm surge and flooding models.
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I’m usually up to date with most conservation projects across the Midwest and this one completely flew past me.
I know the shores near Indiana Dunes to New Buffalo, MI have been in quite a strain in the recent decade, but IL never piqued my day-to-day.
I wonder if they’ll use any of these strategies with the Lakeshore Dr. redesign.
Hey Drew!
Thanks for reading, I love covering these projects as much as high-rises as they make our cities more livable. So something to note too is that this was the last portion of IL shoreline to be unprotected in some way.
I do believe new breakwaters were proposed as one of the various LSD redesign concepts, though nothing is concrete yet. Here’s hoping with many of the revitalization efforts going on in northern Indiana that the lakeshore is taken care of as well.