MILWAUKEE — A federally-funded project will build a living breakwater along part of Milwaukee's Lake Michigan coast.
There already is a breakwater along parts of the coast. It's the grey wall you'd see from the Summerfest grounds. The purpose of a breakwater is to, well, break the water.
"The waves on Lake Michigan can get up to 30 feet high. Not every year, but that can be a pretty damaging wave. It can penetrate into the harbor," said UWM School of Freshwater Science Professor John Janssen.
Breakwaters help to prevent that kind of damage.
"It takes some of the energy out of the waves so the waves aren't so high," Janssen explained.
But, parts of Milwaukee's breakwater system need reinforcement after years of waves crashing up against it.
"In 2020 there was a storm that cause several million dollars of damage to the Port of Milwaukee and those sort of storm events have become more frequent and stronger," said Harbor District Environment Direct Aaron Zeleske.
Zeleske is part of the team designing the living, or ecological, breakwater. It's still in the preliminary engineering stage but is being funded by Inflation Reduction Act dollars. The planned breakwater will look more like an island than the concrete wall we see now.
Zeleske said the ecological breakwater will "add resilience to the breakwater system in Milwaukee and protect our harbor from big storm events which have become unpredictable due to climate change."
The planned ecological breakwater will start just south of the Summerfest grounds and run the length of Jones Island. Zeleske said that will protect important port infrastructure as well as the Jones Island water treatment plant.
"If anything were to happen to that water treatment plant, we would be in serious trouble," Zeleske said.
In addition to adding protection, the breakwater will also help make Milwaukee Harbor more environmentally friendly.
Zeleske said it will "incorporate habitat for fish underwater and things like migratory birds above. So, it's kind of a duo purpose project."
Janssen compared it to the Sistine Chapel.
"They built the Sistine Chapel so they could have paintings all over the top by Michael Angelo? No. It's a chapel. We need a breakwater to protect commerce. Once we have a breakwater, what can we do with it that makes it even better? And that's try to improve it as a habitat," Janssen said.
City leaders will be holding a press conference about the living breakwater Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. at the Pierhead Lighthouse.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
