Lake Front Boulevard in the City of Dunkirk
The House of Representatives have approved $4.175 million for the City of Dunkirk to improve infrastructure along the Lake Erie shoreline.
Congressman Nick Langworthy, joined by city and county officials, announced the funding for the Dunkirk Harbor Segmented Living Shoreline Design and Construction Project was approved as part of the FY25 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate before being sent to the President for final approval.
Langworthy said the funding will be used to design and construct off-shore breakwaters, “Which will create a living shoreline. This approach, which has been successfully used in areas of the east coast, will protect the harbor by using natural elements of sand and rocks and plants to restore the shoreline. It will work with the current breakwalls, which are the first line of defense, while the living shoreline stabilizes the harbor over the long term.”
Dunkirk Director of Planning and Development Vince DeJoy said the project will primarily protect Lake Front Boulevard during seiche events, “We can get up to 30 foot waves which come and crash over the seawall. And we have our most critical infrastructure that is buried underneath that. And if that was gone and taken out in one of these very violent storms, 100 year storms that seem to be coming every three, four, five years, it would be devastating for the city. It would be an ecological nightmare, not including the economic nightmare.”
The existing breakwater is getting repairs through $7.5 million in funding through the Army Corps of Engineers.
This bill has not passed in the Senate. It’s a little early to announce it, unless you’re trying to get people to view for you when your haven’t had a single bill passed in two years in office.