The “daylighting” of Dunes Creek at the Indiana Dunes State Park is the subject of a national award at the Association of Conservation Engineers’ 45th annual conference in Erie, Penn.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Engineering will be presented with the Award of Excellence by ACE. Sharing in the award are the project designers, The Troyer Group from South Bend and J.F. New from Walkerton, and the general contractor, Gariup Construction of Gary.

“Daylighting” is an industry term for taking a stream that has been routed through a culvert and restoring it to an open channel, thereby exposing it to natural light. This is normally done to restore the stream’s natural character and reduce storm-water runoff.

The restored section is located within Indiana Dunes State Park. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) directed the creek underground and into approximately 1,300 feet of concrete pipe beneath a parking lot. Approximately 500 feet of that section was daylighted on this project.

The stream empties into Lake Michigan, adjacent to the state park’s bathing beach. High fecal coliform levels were occurring throughout the summer, forcing the beach to close periodically. Multiple state and federal agencies studied the issue for years, and concluded that the source of the coliform bacteria was the result of runoff washing material from the adjacent woods into the creek during heavy rainfall. In addition to the beach problems, this created recurring erosion and flooding issues for the park. Restoration of the creek offered an opportunity to rectify these problems and improve both water quality and habitat.

Tom Hohman, DNR director of engineering, said it was expected that it would take more than a year for the biological systems to restore themselves enough to reduce the bacteria levels, but that preliminary testing has already showed some reduction in the levels.

“We hope that as the biological systems re-establish, this will improve even more. Ultimately this should lead to lower levels at the beach itself and thus fewer beach closures,” he said.

John Leszczynski, project manager with Troyer, said the area provided some unusual challenges.

“We were taking up an old parking lot and converting it back to what it was since the beginning of time,” he said. “Since the creek runs between two dunes, we had to make sure when we were finished, the creek wouldn’t erode the dunes and that the natural plants would grow on the banks.”

Total cost of the project was $627,900, of which $425,000 was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the DNR’s Lake Michigan Coastal Program.

Posted 10/3/2006