Ice has done serious damage to the docks at the Desert Sunrise marina. (Ken Baker photo)
Shifting lake ice caused by one of the longest and coldest winters in the South Okanagan over the past 25 years has resulted in the Town of Osoyoos’ Desert Sunrise Marina suffering significant physical damage.
The marina, which was scheduled to open for the 2017 season this past Saturday, won’t open until the facility has been deemed safe by professionals, engineers, said Steve Shannon, a former Town planner who still works for the Town of Osoyoos in its Community Services department and worked on this project when the marina first opened five years ago.
“The Town’s Desert Sunrise Marina experienced some significant, but not catastrophic ice damage this year,” said Shannon. “Following a professional review of the damage, we believe it was caused by a rare combination of events where the Osoyoos Lake ice stayed connected to the lagoon ice.”
The marina was constructed in the fall of 2011 and opened for business in the spring of 2012.
The shore line and lagoon ice edges traditionally melt much earlier than the mass of ice that covers Osoyoos Lake, but that was not the case this spring, he said.
“I believe the ice from the main body of the lake and the lagoon remained connected due to the extended cold weather we went through in early spring and this combined with strong winds from the west created conditions allowing for the full sheet of ice to push up against the dock structure with massive force,” said Shannon. “We’ve had dock professionals come and survey the damage and we expect to be reviewing our options and completing repairs in the near future.”
While he wouldn’t estimate the total amount of damage caused, Shannon reiterated it is significant and likely in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The Town built the marina in partnership with Watermark Beach Resort. Watermark has 16 boat slips for their end users and the Town has 16 slips, said Shannon.
“Typically we would open on April 1 to begin the 2017 moorage season, however, this year the marina will remain closed for a brief period of time until the facility is deemed to be safe,” said Shannon.
The main dock is 410 feet in length along the west side of the lagoon and there are floatation billets under the docks, he said.
The main dock structure has a framework made of Western Red Cedar timbers. Dock construction includes 1.5-inch fibre-reinforced plastic decking, which provides light penetration for fish habitat and there are 10 steel piles mounted flush along the back of the main dock structure. There are also 16 dock “fingers” that are each 24 feet long, located along the main dock structure creating a total of 32 boat slips, he said.
“The public boat launch dock is 210 feet long and is located along the east side of the lagoon and was not damaged by the ice,” he said.
At the south end of the marina, there is one boat launch area into the lagoon and another boat launch into Osoyoos Lake.
The marina and boat launch parking lot was redesigned and paved with a number of combined vehicle – boat trailer parking stalls.
At the south end we also added a small building with marina washrooms and some marina office space.
The shifting ice caused damage as several of the steel piles are now sticking up through the dock structure, rather than being located along the back side of the structure, he said.
Some of the Western Red Cedar timbers were also damaged by the ice.
Shannon said the Town marina wasn’t the only one to suffer physical damage as a result of shifting lake ice this spring.
“I’ve heard that it happened in a few other places across the province because of the harsh winter weather,” he said. “Currently I’m in the process of reviewing options to ensure that this does not happen again.”
“This has been one of the longest and coldest winters and springs over the past 20 years and it’s very unusual for Osoyoos Lake to still be covered in ice at the end of February,” he said.
“There are many winters, as people here know, where we hardly get any ice on the lake,” he said. “It’s very unusual to have the entire lake frozen solid throughout January and February and usually portions of the shore line and the opening to the lagoon melt sooner than the rest of the lake, but that didn’t happen this year.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
The late and more extensive ice this season caused damage to the docks at Desert Sunrise Marina. (Ken Baker photo)
