MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – After over 15 years, Marquette’s Lakeshore Boulevard Restoration project is officially complete.
On Monday afternoon, city officials met to celebrate with members of the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, after their collaborations contributed $5 million to the project. The 20-acre shoreline restortion initiative is now the largest of it’s kind in the Great Lakes, and features an abundance of native plant species, a lookout platform, and an extra bike path.
“This was a team effort,” said SWP Executive Director Carl Lindquist. “We’re really proud of the work that was accomplished with the city.”
While the rocks along the water may seem jagged and unnatural right now, says they were put there for a specific reason.
“The rock will become more like cobble over the years, it will become more rounded,” explained Lindquist. “It will change, it’s not going to stay stagnant like the boulders that used to be here, this is intended to be a living shoreline.”
The project also included drilling and placing microchips into about 500 of the rocks to track them as they reshape and move over the next five years. This research will be used as a guideline for similar projects across the country.
