The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District, and Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) have announced the start of the first phase of a new wetland ecosystem development project in Buffalo’s Outer Harbor.
The USACE and contractor Ryba Marine Construction have laid bedding stone across the mouth of the abandoned Shipping Slip 3, establishing the first layer of a submerged breakwater to hold material dredged from Buffalo River and placed in the slip to form the foundation of the new ecosystem.
The project intends to reverse coastal wetland degradation in the Niagara River system and throughout the Great Lakes.
It has been split into three phases: breakwater development, dredged material placement, and aquatic and subaquatic habitat development.
This season's construction began in September and ended this month and featured the placement of 17,200 tons of bedded stone in Slip 3. The bedding stone is projected to displace silty material at the slip’s bottom and settle during the coming months.
The USACE has teamed up with ECHDC for this project, which carries a total value of $14.8m.
ECHDC president Mark Wendel said: “Directly adjacent to Wilkeson Pointe, where an extensive, year-and-a-half-long improvement project is starting this fall [autumn], the Slip 3 project will help renew key elements of the aquatic habitat that New York State and governor Hochul recognise are crucial to a vibrant waterfront.”
The USACE and Ryba Marine will restart work next year, beginning with further bedding stone, then 4.8ft of underlayer stone, and 7.2ft of armour stone.
The breakwater will span the entire mouth of the slip, submerging a part to provide communication to Lake Erie and improve the wetlands’ health.
The breakwater's first-phase construction is anticipated to be completed in September next year.
Congressman Brian Higgins said: “This $14.8m initiative is that latest component of a two-decade, more-than $200m, coordinated, multiagency effort to take Buffalo’s greatest natural asset, its Lake Erie shoreline, and convert it from an inaccessible post-industrial wasteland into an interconnected system of parks and urban natural habitat, the acreage of which is roughly equal to New York City’s Central Park.”
