Egg Harbor Marina Back in Place with Heavier Chains

The floating docks in the Egg Harbor marina have new, thicker, stronger chains holding them now and await boaters next season. Photo by Craig Sterrett.

Repairs cost the Village of Egg Harbor $26,000 after windblown waves Aug. 3 snapped chains and caused Egg Harbor docks to float 10 feet out of position.

Village Administrator Megan Sawyer said Edgewater Resources engineers, and Mike Kahr from Death’s Door Marine, devised a plan to move the docks back into their original position and secure them. 

Kahr completed the work at the end of October, replacing nine of the marina’s three-eighth-inch, grade 43 chains that broke, with half-inch, grade 70 chains. Kahr said the new chains are almost twice as strong as the originals. 

The marina will reopen in spring, while Edgewater and village officials continue to determine whether the marina needs more precautions, such as more of the large chains or the addition of pilings, Sawyer said. 

Kahr said the marina has 33 chains and he does not believe this type of marina setup is the most secure design. He said if the windstorm had been a sustained event, all of the original, weaker chains could have broken “like a zipper.”

Prior to the chain replacement, the village had only a temporary fix in place that incorporated ropes. The board on Sept. 13 decided to end the docking season for transient and long-term boaters rather than risking a repeat event with boats pushing against the docks in the event of a late-fall windstorm.

The docks were not damaged.

“Questions remain as to whether the existing docks themselves can handle the forces,” Kahr said. He also said it’s difficult “to closely inspect almost 5,000 feet of chain covered with zebra mussels and other growths.”

Additional Shoreline Ideas

The village has $412,740 in grant funds that it needs to spend this spring for the lift station construction site near the village beach. If not put to use when the lift station is completed in early May, the village would put those funds back into debt service. 

Village Trustee Cambria Mueller said those funds can help cover two projects near the lift station, beach and old Alpine Road.  

Sawyer said dock and pier expert Kahr has a plan for refurbishing the sunken and broken breakwall in the water across Alpine Road from the lift station. The village acquired the breakwall and some additional beachfront two years ago when it purchased shoreline property from Alpine Resort Acquisition Co. for the lift station.

Sawyer said if the breakwall pier project doesn’t use up the grant funds, some can be used to repave portions of the beach parking lot and add spaces near the lift station. The beach parking lot currently has permeable pavers to slow runoff to the lake and beach, and the new or expanded lot would have either permeable pavement or pavers, Sawyer said.

Contractors have completed the lift station structure but are waiting for various items including Wisconsin Public Service electricity hookup, control panels, a generator and centrifugal pumps.