The First 75-Feet of the Whiskey Island Floating Breakwater
Since late August, we have been fabricating the all-new floating breakwater for Whiskey Island Marina. Two 150’ long steel cylindrical modules will be bolted together to create a 300′ long floating breakwater that will be anchored to the bottom of Lake Erie in front of the marina. The 10-foot diameter breakwater will be used for wake attenuation, to protect the boats and docks in the marina basin from heavy weather. The project will be completed by mid-November.
Our team has enjoyed working on this custom project for Whiskey Island Marina. We have been interviewing our engineers and craftsman throughout the project, including our Project Engineer, Jon Leivo and Welding & Fitting Leaderman, Tim Grimes. More interviews are forthcoming; but, in the meantime, enjoy some photos and videos of our work so far.
Photos
- Whiskey Island Marina shared their vision, we sketched designs.
- Our engineer created detailed blueprints on AutoCAD.
- Steel was delivered to Great Lakes Shipyard and The Great Lakes Group headquarters.
- We staged the steel drums in our shipyard before loading into our shop.
- Cranes were used to move the drums into our shop.
- Bulkheads were installed to reinforce the steel drums.
- Our welders installed bulkheads.
- After bulkheads were installed in half of the steel drums, we started to assemble the first 75′.
- As our first cylindrical module took shape, our team started to work on the other drums.
- Rollers were used in order to weld the inside and outside of the cylindrical modules.
- We welded the inside of the cylindrical modules.
- We welded the outside of the cylindrical modules.
- Once we finished the first cylindrical module, we moved it out into the shipyard to start the second module. The total length of the Whiskey Island Floating Breakwater will be 300′.