Construction to correct the erosion that has taken root at the mouth of the Carp River, due to a late fall storm, began Monday, Nov. 27 and is scheduled to be completed throughout the week.

The Oct. 24 storm surge partially eroded the slope on the south bank of the river, which supports two sewer utilities that transport sewage from the City of Marquette and Marquette Township to the Marquette Waste Water Treatment Plant, said Scott Cambensy, superintendent of public works for the City of Marquette.

“As we looked through, this was a project that needed some immediate attention. To mitigate any further erosion or potential compromise of the utilities we’re going to restore that south slope,” Cambensy said.

The self-supporting slope was originally constructed in 2014 when the two utility pipes had to be relocated to their current location at the mouth of the river.

“When the project was originally done they just restored the slope by the utilities and there was some heavy riptides in there, but it wasn’t large enough to hold up under the storm conditions that were found in the Oct. 24 storm,” Cambensy said. “A lot of that got blown away by the waves and once the water got underneath, it started eroding the bank away and everything just crumbled down on the bank.”

The $10,000 to $12,000 project to combat the erosion will include placing large boulders—from three to five feet across—at the base of the slope, placing a filter fabric between the back of the boulders and the slope, then gradually stacking smaller boulders up to the height of the utilities.

“We’re hoping that will sustain any type of storm surge like we had there,” Cambensy said.

There has been erosion to the shoreline of the Carp River before due to fall storms, but Cambensy said he had never seen any take place at the mouth of the river.

If the erosion had been allowed to continue, the sewage utilities could have sustained more significant damage.

“Nothing was really sustained with the utilities themselves. It was really just trying to mitigate the erosion so something didn’t happen,” Cambensy said.

“Besides just the general cleanup, [the erosion] was the immediate priority.”

The storm damage that remains along the shoreline from Pine Street to Holly Street has caused two forced road closures. Repairs for the remaining damage to the Shiras Park parking lot will be discussed by the city in the spring.

“All said and done, the storm damage that sits now is probably about $100,000 dollars. That doesn’t include anything with the Shiras Park parking lot or any of that stuff.”