The Cedar Point Causeway Wetlands Breakwater, designed by KS Associates for the City of Sandusky, Ohio, has been selected to receive an Outstanding Achievement Award in the 2023 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Ohio Engineering Excellence Awards competition. The project is one of seven projects that are in the running for the top Grand Award in this annual recognition program. One Grand Award winner will be chosen and announced during a luncheon on March 16, 2023, at the Bridgewater Banquet and Conference Center in Powell, Ohio.
A four-member panel of professional engineers and surveyors judged 33 entries based on merits including uniqueness, innovative applications of new or existing engineering techniques, future value to the engineering profession, enhanced public awareness, and social, economic, and sustainable considerations. The Cedar Point Causeway Wetlands Breakwater project demonstrated merits in all of those categories.
KS Coastal Engineers provided final design, permitting, bidding, and construction phases for the project. The breakwater is a unique concept that is proving to resolve two challenges: 1) to provide a structure to contain dredge material that, since 2015, can no longer be disposed in the open waters of Lake Erie, and 2) to beneficially reuse the dredge material to create and restore wetland habitats in Sandusky Bay.
The breakwater has the capacity to contain up to 260,000 cubic yards of material dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Sandusky Bay Federal Navigation Channel — the equivalent of two years’ worth of dredging. The structure, constructed of approximately 3,300 linear feet of armor stone, was designed to dissipate wave energy and provide protection for dredge material placement. The dredge material will help to establish and restore up to 31 acres of in-water wetlands.
The Cedar Point Causeway Wetlands Breakwater is the first fully constructed component of the larger, multi-year Sandusky Bay Initiative (SBI), an Ohio Department of Natural Resources program that aims to turn the bay into a cleaner, healthier body of water for both wildlife and people.
This pilot project is the first non-federal dredge containment structure to be constructed along the shore of Lake Erie. The project includes several concepts for dredge material management, wetland restoration, and nature-based/living shorelines. These concepts, currently being explored at larger ocean ports, are new to Lake Erie. The lessons learned throughout this project will be applied to future projects aimed at improving Sandusky Bay, other Lake Erie harbors, and throughout the Great Lakes.
