All Ogden Dunes beaches are closed due to erosion, police said Thursday.
“This closure is necessary for the maintenance of public safety. Please do not move or go beyond barriers or caution tape,” they said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The Indiana Dunes National Park’s West Beach, about 3 miles west, is the closest open beach, it noted.
It’s the latest closure for public safety, officials said. Winter storms earlier this month have battered already vulnerable shorelines in Indiana and Chicago.
Estimates by the Army Corps of Engineers’ Detroit District office state Lake Michigan is hovering around record water levels, set in 1986.
Usually, lake levels typically drop in the spring. That is not projected to happen this year, according to its estimates.
Beach access at the Portage Lakefront & Pavilion is nominally closed, but trails, fishing area and pavilion are open. This fall, waves breached a sand dune on the pavilon’s west side. The building remains structurally sound for two to three years, according to engineers.
Recent estimates have a $75 million price tag to shore up the lakefront and protect the pavilion, Dunes spokesman Bruce Rowe said previously. About $50 million is the cost for sand replenishment including to truck it in from other locations.
They are looking at a variety of options, including if it might be cheaper - or possible - to move the pavilion, open since 2008, elsewhere on the Portage Lakefront, he said. Indiana Dunes Park officials also closed Lake View Beach in Beverly Shores until May.
Last month, the Porter County Board of Commissioners approved an initial emergency declaration, worried persistent erosion could one day cause Lakefront Drive in Beverly Shores to fall into Lake Michigan, which would cut access for emergency responders.
That request was designed to move it up the chain to unlock state and federal disaster money. However, earlier this month, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security denied it, saying that federal disaster assistance wouldn’t be available until there is actual “loss of infrastructure,” such as roads, bridges or public utilities.
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