After 50 years of waiting, work begins on Olcott breakwall

Buffalo News (NY)

Jun. 28—Half a century after the idea was first proposed, preliminary work will begin Monday on a 400-foot breakwall in Lake Ontario to protect Olcott Harbor from high waves.

The breakwall is designed to prevent damaging floods, such as those of 2017 and 2019, by limiting wave heights in the harbor to 1 foot.

"We are very confident it will put us in a much better position," Newfane Supervisor Timothy R. Horanburg said Friday.

But it will be a noisy, dusty summer in the lakeside hamlet, as 2,000 to 3,000 truckloads of stone are hauled in to be placed in the lake to build the main breakwall and walls beside the two federal piers to protect them from high water.

"We're going to be in the middle of a disaster for about six months," said David Hedley, the fourth-generation owner of Hedley Boat Co.

Its harborfront location will be the staging area for Sevenson Environmental Services of Niagara Falls, which won a nearly $10 million contract for the work.

"In two to three weeks, stone will be coming in, 70 to 75 truckloads a day," Horanburg said.

He said the hamlet's streets will inevitably be damaged, but money for street repairs is included in the $14 million package, 95% of which is being paid for by the state's Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative.

After the breakwall is built, Hedley said Olcott — and his business — will be set up for major progress and investment.

"It's going to calm this harbor down so we don't have 4-to-6-foot waves," Hedley said Friday. "This harbor has needed this breakwall for the last 50 or 60 years."

Hedley intends to install 45 new floating docks to augment the 35 fixed docks he already offers.

In addition, Hedley plans to erect a new building near the east pier that will offer retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and apartments on the second floor.

"We've already invested a couple million dollars," he said.

Another project that depends on the breakwall is the new clubhouse of the Olcott Yacht Club.

Water flooded the ground floor in 2017 and 2019, so the club plans to demolish the existing clubhouse and build a new one on the same site — but with the floor raised 3 feet above the parking lot.

The state gave the club $200,000, and it also received a tax break from the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency for the project.

Commodore Mike Layman said the club hoped to do the work this year, but it probably will be delayed until 2022. While the construction is underway, the club will enclose a 1,000-square-foot outdoor pavilion for members' use.

Layman said the cost of the project will rise with the escalating price of lumber, which continues to rise. "It takes a $400,000 project and makes it a $450,000 project," he said.

The breakwall will be installed in an east-west alignment about 500 feet off the current ends of the two piers. Stone also will be piled on both sides of both piers to support them, and their lengths also will be extended: 75 feet for the west pier, 100 feet for the east pier.

The east pier will be closed to the public during the project.

Horanburg, who has agitated for the breakwall for decades, will leave office at the end of the year. The project is targeted for completion by Christmas.

"It's almost hard to imagine that we put that much work into it," he said.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who created the Lake Ontario resiliency program, has visited Olcott before to inspect flood damage, but Horanburg said he hopes Cuomo will be able to attend a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for July 7.

"We were awarded more than anybody on the lake. He did us good," Horanburg said.

Two other state projects on the Olcott lakefront — a $1.8 million berm to protect the West Bluff neighborhood, and a $1.7 million containment wall on the east side of the harbor — are expected to be bid this year, Horanburg said.

Meanwhile, the state plans to dredge the harbor in October, for the first time since 2014, Horanburg said.

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