Have you seen these rocks in Bellingham? Here’s what’s going on with them
Multi-ton boulders have been making their way through downtown Bellingham recently as part of an ongoing project to help repair a jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, according to Port of Bellingham spokesperson Mike Hogan.
The large, basalt rocks are being sourced from both Whatcom and Skagit counties, Hogan said in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
They are then taken by truck to the Bellingham Shipping Terminal where they are loaded onto barges and shipped to the Columbia River to repair the structural integrity of the south jetty, Hogan said.
The sizes of the rocks range from 8 tons to 35 tons each. It is anticipated that about 400,000 tons of rock will be needed to repair the south jetty, according to Hogan.
A contractor is sourcing the rocks for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which is in charge of replacing the jetty rocks at the mouth of the river.
The south jetty rehabilitation project began in 2019 and is expected to continue into 2023, according to Hogan.
The jetty has been damaged by the Pacific Ocean over time, due to wave action and winter storms creating waves more than 30 feet high. If the jetty was ever breached, it could deposit enough sand to shut down commercial shipping in the area, according to the agency’s website about the project.
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
