Armored bulkheads are disintegrating, expensive to maintain and replace, and degrade aquatic habitat.

This project preserves the ship channel and allows it to support commerce along the river for the long-term, even as it improves the water quality and fish populations along this most problematic segment of the Cuyahoga River.

The Ship Channel shoreline is wearing out, expensive to repair and maintain, and offers no improvement to water quality.

CLEERTEC and its Cuyahoga River community partners will develop and test a long-term shoreline restoration system that would provide for a sustainable, lower cost, high- performance river shoreline for the Ship Channel.

The Ship Channel in the lower 5.6 miles of the Cuyahoga River is currently maintained as Federal Navigation Channel with a dredged depth of 23 feet. The Corps of Engineers maintains the depth of the ship channel as part of their federally mandated mission to maintain the commercially navigable waters of the United States.

For virtually the entire length of the Ship Channel the shoreline is armored with a vertical bulkhead, generally sheet steel, to allow the 620-650’ long lake freighters adequate shore-to-shore navigation room as they traverse the sinuous 5+mile channel up to the head of navigation. The steel bulkheads are approximately 50-70 years old and much of the shoreline is considered to be in weak or poor condition.

Most, if not all sections will need replacement over the next 10 years. The growing need for shoreline replacement is the inevitable function of age, weather and oxidation. Scouring by ice and floating debris and inevitable boat contact add wear and tear.

Cost estimates for replacing the existing steel bulkhead, as-is, where-is, range from $3000 to $5000 per lineal foot. There are approximately 50,000 lineal feet along the banks of the navigation channel. Only about 22,000 feet need to be maintained for docking for actual cargo movement from ship to shore.

Shoreline riparian landowners are required to maintain their own shoreline, even if they do not use the river for freight shipments. Based on cost input from the Corps of Engineers, the RAP has roughly estimated shoreline replacement costs from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000 to replace the existing shoreline with sheet steel bulkhead, for the non-freight landowners. Other costs to maintain the Ship Channel include Corps Of Engineers’ dredging, and development and maintenance of a Confined Disposal Facility (CDF).

Continuing the current maintenance effort will be expensive for all parties and will not improve water quality or aquatic habitat impairments. Maintaining and operating the Navigation channel in its present format can be expected to cost, over the next 20 years:
Dredging $40,000,000 by Corps of Engineers at $2,000,000 per Year.
Contaminated Disposal Facility $75,000,000 based on 2005 Cleveland Lakefront Plan
Local Share- $26,250,000
Corps Share-$48,750,000
Shoreline replacement $90,000,000 +/- Private land owners
Total 20-year costs: $205,000,000 +/-

Because of the current configuration in armored shoreline, channel depth and absence of functional riparian edge, the ship channel negatively impacts water quality and provides a very hostile habitat for larval fish due to higher temperatures, periods of lower dissolved oxygen levels and lack of food and shelter.

Over the past 16 years the Cuyahoga River RAP and our partners at Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Ohio EPA and the Corps of Engineers have studied the ship channel extensively. The channel in its current configuration is a source of impairment to the Cuyahoga River, and in turn a contributor to the degradation of Lake Erie. The shape, flow rate and shoreline conditions are direct impairments. The lack of habitat cover along the armored shoreline, elevated water temperatures, and low dissolved oxygen create hostile environments for migrating larval fish.

While much of the bulk commodity freight activity has remained strong, as the economy of the Cuyahoga Valley changes there has been a decrease in the number of customers relying on the freighter fleet for cargo. The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission is conducting extensive planning efforts regarding regenerating the lower Cuyahoga Valley, in an effort known as the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI). The RAP has been an active partner in this effort.

As the riparian property owners of the aging shoreline contemplate the costs of replacement, many in our community are starting to think long term and consider alternative, more integrated approaches for community management toward the recovery of the river, especially as a re-development asset, in terms of shoreline maintenance, freight movement and associated costs.

In some cases projected bulkhead replacement costs may exceed the value of the river front parcels.

As part of the regeneration proposed by the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative, the RAP and other Cuyahoga community partners have proposed that the shoreline could be replaced with a High Performance Shoreline Management System.

Area shorelines, where not needed to accommodate ship freight handling, can be developed into an integrated new style shoreline system that would:
• Accommodate commercial freight movement
• Protect Land areas, and
• Promote restoration of important natural river functions along the edge.

Local community partners have developed preliminary concepts for potential use. The project will refine design performance specifications, seek development of prototype designs and construct prototype high performance edge systems for evaluation for potential long-term deployment.

The “Green Bulkhead” would have potential for use throughout the navigable rivers in the Great Lakes that are facing similar replacement issues.

Performance expectations-
Preliminary design performance protocols have been developed to guide development and evaluation of various prototypes. The Cuyahoga High-Performance Shoreline Edge System would:
o Provide a stable and secure division between dry land uses and the ship channel,
o Promote recovery of a vegetated shoreline, provide habitat and dissolved oxygen for migrating fish,
o Be stable enough to withstand prop wash and shore line scour from passing freighters and seasonal ice and debris scour, and
o Not consume much additional land area.

Incentives -
Converting to the new shoreline system would make property owners eligible for stream bank and wetland restoration mitigation credits offered through the Wetland “401” program administered by the Corps of Engineers and Ohio EPA, which could help offset installation costs.

The goal is to build a new-tech shoreline system that would provide a more economical alternative to the existing bulkhead configuration and provide a higher level of overall community and landowner benefits. The conceptual designs to be developed would be manufactured in the area and provide business and growth opportunities. Partnerships would be developed with local companies to support commercial development of the new high tech shoreline system. Expertise, business and jobs would be developed for both manufacture and installation of the shoreline system. License fees would provide a source of funding to develop new CLEERTEC initiatives.

Any long-term plan will probably cover least a 10-20 year time frame as our local economic activity continues to evolve. Our effort here is to develop an innovative approach needed for a long-term new system. We expect that this initiative will allow us to increase our community’s skills at fashioning improved approaches to public-private partnerships that promote community regeneration.

The project supports business and job development as part of an overall effort to regenerate the environmental and economic vitality of the lower Cuyahoga Valley. These goals are supported by the work of the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative, Cuyahoga American Heritage River Initiative, Cuyahoga Remedial Action Plan, and Federally mandated and approved Total Maximum Daily Load standards (TMDL provides targets for reducing pollutant loads directly related to the river’s ability to provide a natural level of assimilation.)

It provides an opportunity for new Public–Private partnerships to develop a system-based solution to a fragmented, but interrelated, set of problems. Technology developed here will have application and benefit throughout the Great Lakes and similar rivers in the United States and abroad. Federal support for the development of a new, innovative shoreline edge system will promote revitalization of the Cuyahoga Valley, reduce long term maintenance costs and promote attainment of water quality goals.

The development and evaluation of the HPSMS or “Cuyahoga Green Bulkhead” was funded for $495,000 in WRDA for FY 2006. The Corps of Engineers is administering the project for the Federal Government. CLEERTEC and its partners are committed to contributing a 25% local match.