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walleye express |
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 Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | For those of you who didn't know, Hampton Townships Finn Road ramp is being dredged and will re-open around the 4th of July weekend. That's according to the company owner/foreman who was hired too dredge the 1400 foot long cut that runs from Finn Road park to the Saginaw Bay. Many of you might be too young to remember that at one time there were 3 decent ramps between the mouth of the Saginaw River and Quanicassee. Taceys Landing, Knight Road Harbor and lastly, the Finn Road ramp. All were great and strategic areas to both get on the bay, and be right where the walleyes, bass, ducks and muskrats were for many years, before the Great Lakes lost her 40 inches of water. And All these ramps have been out of commission for roughly 8 years now because of that fact. So at the Hampton Townships last Spring meeting, when the dredging question came up again for debate, along with motions to use both grant and Township moneys for the dredging project, there was standing room only. And none were there to talk against the move, but for it. So it was passed and the work started a few weeks ago. The township will also start charging a launch fee to recoup their $60,000plus investment. That's the good news. But after my long talk with the contractor today at the ramp site, as always, there has to be some bad news as well. And this bad news came from a simple lack of communication and knowledge of the existing conditions at the site. The contractors obligations under their contract with the township, is to remove 2,500 cubic yards of sediment from the cut. They figured they would start near the end of the cut, where the cement walkway ends. They would dredge the cut 3 feet deep and 30 feet wide well out into the bay, while making barriers on it's east side to prevent wind-fill. They would guarantee their work for 3 years. They were told that the cut was still 3 feet deep out to that point, so their sediment barge would float down the cut to that negotiated starting point. Well, when they tried to launch their barge at the ramp, she bottomed out in the actual 2 feet of water that is there. This meant that they had to dredge ahead as they went, to even get to the negotiated starting point in the cut. This sediment of course was/is counted against the 2,500 CY they contracted to haul away. You can see by the picture that they are now where they thought they were originally going to start, and have hauled roughly 1,000 CY of sediment so far. They have however dredged 4 feet deep and 35 feet wide. And now the worse news. They have not been asked or contracted to dredge the Ramp turn around basin itself. So even though the cut will be deep and wide enough for bigger boats in the straight away part of the cut, you'll never get a boat bigger than 16 feet sporting a 10 horse in at the ramp area to use it. The whole project could be ruined by leaving the 300 to 400 cubic yards of sediment in the ramp turn around area. I'm guessing/hoping that they will see this mistake and contract the original dredger, or use their own equipment to rectify this SNAFU. The last picture is the ramp basin that is not (so far) scheduled to be dredged. Edited by walleye express 6/7/2006 11:22 PM Attachments ----------------  IM001102.JPG (67KB - 174 downloads) IM001105.JPG (55KB - 179 downloads) IM001109.JPG (89KB - 192 downloads) IM001111.JPG (76KB - 188 downloads) | ||
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | |||
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Came awful close to having the Finn Road Ramp project come to a screaching hault last night. Around 7:15pm a call came in to hampton Fire dept. that a fire was burning along the Bay shore that was started at the end of Finn Road. It took almost 6 hours before the fire could be put out, as it burned 70 to 100 yards wide all the way East downshore to Melan Road, about 1 mile East of Finn. The DNR fire buldozer got ahead of the fire and cut a fire break to stop it. If the dredging equipment had been parked on the east side of the cut, it very well could have went up in the blaze. I talked to the DNR dozer driver and he said the fire was being put in the books as suspecious, and most likely was started on purpose. Whatever happened to skipping stones, making rubber band guns or any of the things that kids can do and didn't have a fellony attached to them. Attachments ---------------- IM001112.JPG (97KB - 192 downloads) | ||
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