Boaters can rest easier this year while moored in Callander, because the municipality has repaired the breakwater running along the dock on Lansdowne Street and used 480 tons of rock to do so. The harbour will be safe for a long time to come, as that pile of rock will break even the largest waves Lake Nipissing can throw at it. All for the price of $79,600.
Tim McKenna is the manager of operations for Callander, and he explained that the original dock—which was replaced in 2012—served as the breakwater for the harbour. However, the new dock was built lower than the one removed in 2012 and didn’t serve well as a breakwater.
So, it was left to the rock piles that formed the foundation bed for the original dock to break those waves. The issue was that often, much of this wall or rock was below the surface, “creating a severe navigation hazard if it wasn’t properly marked,” McKenna noted.
The municipality marked the danger with small hazard buoys visible at night as well as day, however, despite the best attempts to warn boaters, “there have been several instances of boats suffering damages whey they hit the shallow rocks.”
Time to bring in 480 tons of rock, and the help of Kenalex Construction. The new breakwater builds upon the old dock’s cribs and runs parallel to the current dock with the gazebo built on it. The new breakwater, McKenna explained, is about two feet “above the highest recorded lake levels and will be visible to all boaters.”
See: Callander has big plans for its docks and marina
With the breakwater in place, the next plan is to add some more docking space for residents and visitors. “Now it’s a protected harbour,” noted Mayor Robb Noon, “and that was really the intent,” so the municipality can carry on with increasing the amount of dock space.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
