Jetty project moves forward

SANDPOINT — Despite the rocky start, the new Dock Street breakwater will have a smooth surface and the first phase of the project will be completed this spring.

More than 8,000 yards of large rock, or about 450 dump truck loads, were used to build the breakwater extension, said Charlie Kramer, of C.E. Kramer Crane and Contracting Inc., which was awarded the bid in December.

The project includes adding 300 feet to the existing breakwater and the addition of a 300-foot dock for transient moorage.

The $750,000 project, which was paid with grants, new construction fees and the parks improvement funds, is scheduled to be completed in June, Sandpoint Parks and Recreation Director Kim Woodruff said.

The work is part of three-phase project spread over the next few years , Woodruff said.

When it is completed in its entirety, the project will include viewpoints, a green area and a walking trail.

“It will be a fun place to walk the pathways and walkways planned in future,” Woodruff said.

For now though, all eyes are on the first phase meant to protect the existing marina, which in the past was exposed to the fickle mood of Lake Pend Oreille.

“The lake gets pretty nasty,” Kramer, who owns a marina in Hope, said.

The work is on schedule thanks in part to a mild winter, he said.

“The rock jetty is done other than the topping on it,” he said. “It’s a good year to do it with the water so low. Things are moving along smoothly. The winter we’re having makes it real good for construction.”

A below-average snowpack this year probably won’t affect the recreational season, Nola Leyde, an Army Corps of Engineers public affairs specialist for Albeni Falls Dam, said.

Despite an expected low runoff, the Corps plans to raise the lake to summer levels following the usual schedule.

“We talked about a low water year, but our plan is to begin raising the lake April 1, the same as last year,” Leyde said.

The fair weather that coincided with stimulus funding has allowed Kramer to keep the bulk of his employees working this winter.

The company’s 25 workers are spread across the Panhandle including workers assigned to the Sandpoint project.

“We’re keeping six to eight employees busy here,” as well as several local subcontractors, he said.

Over the past few years, the number of boat owners on the waiting list to lease slips in the city marina has fallen off, probably due to the floundering economy, Woodruff said.

“We used to have an extensive waiting list,” he said. “That seems to have shrunk considerably.”

But not enough to keep the slips from filling up during the summer season.

The city’s policy is to allow moorage as soon as boat owners pay their annual fees and can get their boats to the docks.

“As soon as they pay, and there’s enough water in the slip, they can have at it,” Woodruff said.

Contractors are in the process of widening the footprint of the jetty and adding topping to the new breakwater. Building the docks will round off the work.

Parks and Rec is in the process of securing funding for the project’s second phase, which includes further improvements to Dock Street, Woodruff said.

“Eventually, this entire breakwater will be an extension of the park system,”  Woodruff said.