Not Bluffing About Success; Concordia Project Stabilizes, Beautifies Lake Shoreline

By LAWRENCE SUSSMAN

Mequon – Walking a half-mile along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Concordia University offers spectacular views of the re-graded and stabilized bluffs – and of the lake.

The university’s $12 million finished project provides Concordia students and the public with relatively easy access to Lake Michigan.

“We are really excited about the project. It has exceeded our expectations in terms of campus aesthetics, public access to the lake and our students’ recreation,” said the university’s president, the Rev. Patrick J. Ferry.

After last weekend’s snowstorm, the university closed the bluff, which will be open to the public next spring.

“The whole thing was opened toward the end of September, and it was a beautiful fall, so the students had the opportunity to enjoy it for a month or more,” Ferry said.

The university has not set a limit on the number of people whom it will allow to use the bluff on any one day, said Mario Valdes, the campus safety director.

“It will be based on common sense, and what works,” Valdes said.

The completed project includes:

— More than 400 boulders, each weighing between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds, have been placed along the shore to screen the bluffs from the lake’s waves. A walking path is directly behind the boulders

— A stairway with about 160 steps goes straight up and down the steep bluff.

— Hikers also can transverse the bluff via a zig-zag pathway, called a switchback, that is less abrupt than the stairway, but about twice as long.

— Grass, anchored by netting, has been planted on the 130-foot- high bluffs to help stabilize them.

— A public beach is at the north end of the project and protected by a breakwater. No lifeguard will be provided, Ferry said, and people will swim at their own risk.

No vehicles will be allowed to take people down to the lakeshore, Ferry said, but emergency vehicles can use a road, which is on the north end of the project.

To lessen the slope of the bluffs, the university re-graded them over the last two years. To do so, about 400,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to a 36-acre site at the southwest corner of Lake Shore Drive and Highland Road, which the School Sisters of Notre Dame formerly owned.

The material has been removed, and the 36 acres has been seeded. The university has not yet decided how this site will be used, said Jeffrey Bandurski, director of university relations.

The university paid $3.3 million for the property, according to papers filed with the Ozaukee County register of deeds office.

The school raised more than $8 million for the overall project, mostly from private donors, Ferry said. The project has been paid for in full, he said.

JJR Environmental Engineering of Madison designed the project, which is similar to the Lake Michigan bluff protection work that the firm designed for Bender Park in Oak Creek.

Here are the rules that will govern public access to the campus lakefront next spring, Valdes said:

— The bluff will be open from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset.

— On weekdays, visitors must register at the university relations office in the main campus building between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. On weekends, visitors must register at a guard shack at the lakeshore parking lot entrance.

— If anyone is on the bluff or beach without a pass, they will be asked to get one. If they refuse, campus police will ask them to leave.

— No dogs, alcoholic beverages or grills will be allowed on the bluff or along the beach.

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