Shoreline Protection and Inlet Dynamics

Breakwater Inspection

Lake Michigan

Owner: US Army Corps of Engineers: Detroit District

As part of a Detroit District program to periodically evaluate the condition of shoreline protection structures, OSI conducted multibeam hydrographic and side scan sonar surveys of eleven Lake Michigan breakwaters in western Michigan and eastern Wisconsin.

These surveys were designed to investigate the structural integrity of the breakwaters and to identify scouring or other erosional features indicative of a potential risk to the stability of the structures.

Ocean Surveys' performance on this contract resulted in an ACASS rating of "excellent".

Figure 1: Topographic survey crew profiling the above water portion of the Muskegon Harbor (Michigan) jetty.

Figure 2: Isometric presentation generated from multibeam hydrographic data of the Muskegon Harbor jetty.

Figure 3: OSI multibeam hydrographic survey site - Manitowoc Harbor (Wisconsin) north and south jetties.

Figure 4: Side scan sonar image of armor stone.