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| A tug, owned by Durocher Marine, a division of Kokosing Construction, enters the Huron River |
Inevitably, most Huron residents have seen a steady
stream of trucks rolling through town carrying large boulders. There have been many questions and
speculations about what is actually happening with these stones.
Earlier this year, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo
District put out a call seeking interested firms capable of breakwater repair
work in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland East breakwater is located in Lake Erie
near the entrance to Cleveland Harbor.
Apparently, the breakwater was already in disrepair when Superstorm
Sandy arrived in October 2012 and caused additional damage. The project was awarded to the Durocher Marine
Division of Kokosing Construction, Inc., which is based in Cheboygan,
Michigan.
Kokosing is currently quarrying the required stone in
Woodville, Ohio, transporting it to Huron via truck, and unloading it at Huron’s
ore dock. The stone is then loaded on
barges and pushed to Cleveland with a tug boat.
The trucks make several deliveries of boulders to Huron each day. In fact, there are, on average, 16 trucks and
each makes three runs per day picking up and delivering their cargo. Hence, Huron is simply a conduit through which
the stone passes. There is no financial
benefit to the City for this project.
Interestingly, it is more cost-effective for Kokosing to deliver the
stone to Huron and then transport it to Cleveland by water than it is to drive
the stone to Cleveland. The project,
which in its entirety will take four to five months, will likely continue
through October.
