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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1973-04-19, Page 21h the Goda rich- Elevator and Transit Company and erich Town eauncll would like to see the Federal Gover- t get work started on a project to eliminate the Serous harbor surge locally so that boats moored here never again damaged as occurred In March when a struck the harbor tearing boats loose and causing close to $1,000,000 damage. What the final answer to this problem will be is still unclear but one suggestion calls for the replacement of wire gabions at the northeast side of the harbor with a natural beach. It Is thought on such a beach the surge could dissipate Itself. (staff photo) For sometime now the east wall of Goderich harbor has been failing away and then in March when ships were torn loose during high winds the wire gabions making up part of the northeast harbor wall were severely damaged. Shipping companies using the harbor for winter storage have ex - pressed concern about entrusting their boats to the local winter shelter again and now pressure Is being applied to the Federal Government for a solution that would once again help Goderich offer safe winter storage for lake boats. (staff photo) oderich Town Council l5 a letter was read eorge Parsons, president* Goderich Elevator and t Company, urging the athers to help push for at the local harbor on that would prevent a of damage suffered at al waterfront when gale inds struck March 18. . Parsons warned the 1 that many of the ship- ompanies might not be to Goderich for winter and his fears were con - Thursday when the ing Division of the a' Central Railway ad - in an interview that. consideration was being 'to finding alternate win- rts. One Algoma Central boat, the. Agawa Canyon, was in .G.1.d.e.t'fttir`.ttarbbr.its-part the_--..,.. 1972-73 winter fleet and suf- fered an estimated $150,000 in damage. In an interview earlier Mr. Parsons had noted that he did not expect the Algoma Central ship to be back. "It took quite a selling job to get them in the first place," he explained, "and even at the last minute they almost decided to go elsewhere. With the $150,000 damage iri mind the Elevatorpresident had little doubt the Agawa Canyon and other Algoma central Railway boats would find other ports in the future. If the winter fleet, which represented four major ship- ping companies, were all to find is This grain is loaded on alternate docking it could cost railway clArs and shipped- to i . l at�.a.da..d:t�x.ilt ..�.he_titne_ employment. in Goderich, a con. when the.. shipping lanes- are siderable amount. closed by ice. "It would represent 2,000,000. A total of five Great Lakes bushels of -extra busir 'ss .we ships and another four barges would -not get," Parsons tax- broke loose from their plained. "This represents about moorings when winds in excess one fifth of our total business of 50 miles per hour whipped in for a season." off Lake Huron. The boats This'in turn would affect the piled up in the extreine south- jobs of some 28 men to some east corner of the harbor bum - degree. Two crews of 14 men', ping and grinding' into each each are employed by the other resulting in damage that. Goderich Elevator, and Transit is now estimated -in the neigh - Company; one crew to move the bourhood of $1,000,000. loaded ships around the harbor "It is hard to understand for unloading during the winter ' how that much damage months when regular crews,art' resulted," Mr. Parsons obser- not on board, and the other to ved, "hut even on our old do the actual work cl:f barges (used only for storage unloading the grain. ., and stripped of all their gear and machinery) the damage is now estimated at $60,000. had been unloaded," he noted, "if they still had their cargos on, much of, the damage would have occurred below the water line and I'm willing to bet.one or more would have been sit- ting on the bottom of,the har- bor." The high winds pushed extra water into the harbor in what is known as "seche action" lif- ting the very boyant empty boats to the point where they snapped their cable mooring lines. The wind then drove them across the harbor where they slammed into the harbor walls, and each other. This,"seche" or,surge is the major problem that must be corrected to . prevent a ..,x.eLurxau.ce...1f..tkxtm.M.t..h,.?,'.a�l_F .p up. Goderierh 'Harbor has always had a surge hut' with high water levels in the lake, which show every indication of rising still more, the problem is that much worse. What the final answer will be is still not known but engineers with the Elevator Company feel part of the solution cies in recreating a beach at the -nor- theast 'end of the harbor on which the surge can dissipate. This beach was replaced some time ago by a sheer wall of stone filled gabions. George Parsons -also notes that it has been suggested that tunnels might he opt ned het- Hooch Shipping. «ho ow ne d ween the harbor and the the Elrrclalt, would only otty tae.a.rlV'_t1(ILIE11 f-tl` w+r�rH.gh that their company was not which t he ,surge c o u Id r 1; l l ;t7; .--..I,1,1 ri k'f ,rr..w.t. h..n.*...-«.ttr--rrt7 cltrf..,,_- The other shipping panles who pat 1) atm l0 Goderich harbor over the past winter are not so eincerned as the Algoma Central Company but some c.,ricepi is tieing x.. .. pressed. The Scott -Mi seller Stearn Ship company sav that 0 they have a ship in the (;oriel tell -area at the end of the 197:3 season they would t,r�,l,ah'tv dock 4.11 God er1 h The Royalton, owned by Scott Misener; was part of the winter fleet. Pat r. Stearn Ship t' -,fl pam, 1• n -t sa'illg one way, air the ,,the' that rhf., rdr:1 '. 1 he an,.lf, at f lilt# i fico . • ,;'! Paters. n They .% ere , _ .:ri: `»o k t_hrough and hoth 1 '' r (.. ont 0 and the c�ocleri1 f;lcand Transit Company ollt to see the Federal (:o,rrnnlent, who own ;f11 harbors, make the necessary :r -pairs this slimmer so (, ,rlerich will he an a positic n to ,offer safe mooring for a 19737.74 winter fleet. ;ter .98 „ ,1 h Mrd a 7-1801