HYDE PARK — Promontory Point’s limestone is still doing a sufficient job protecting the shoreline after nearly a century, and needed repairs can largely be made using materials already at the park, activists said.
The Promontory Point Conservancy commissioned a study last year on the conditions of the Point’s shoreline structures and their ability to withstand Lake Michigan. Advocates released a study report Thursday during a press conference at the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West in Hyde Park.
Among the study’s findings:
- The existing shoreline barriers offer “adequate” protection from Lake Michigan waves and storms, though repair and maintenance is needed.
- The Point’s limestone blocks “have not failed” and are in overall good condition, meaning most of the rehab project can be completed “using material already at the site” — a cheaper method than new construction.
- Much of the earth and stone fill supporting the Point’s promenades is in poor condition due to erosion and should be replaced.
- Resetting existing limestone blocks displaced by erosion would provide “as effective, if not more, protection against wave and storm damage than a concrete-based replacement.”
- Accessibility at the Point can be improved while maintaining its character by incorporating ramps and other features near the concrete “coffins” at its eastern edge.
To read the full condition study, click here. For a fact sheet about the study’s findings, click here.
The study “unequivocally [concludes] that the iconic limestone block revetment currently in place along the Point’s shoreline is structurally sound, provides critical shoreline protections for the inland park and south lakefront, and may be easily rehabilitated,” conservancy Vice President Michael Scott said Thursday.
Promontory Point, which runs from 54th to 56th streets on the lakefront, is a beloved South Side gathering space notable for its limestone steps — the last remaining stretch on Chicago’s lakefront. The Point was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018 and named a Chicago Landmark last year.
The report was released as the Park District, Chicago Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work to reinforce Chicago’s lakefront via the Shoreline Protection Project.
The agencies “look forward to reviewing the report,” transportation department spokesperson Erica Schroeder said.
“Any data and input will be valuable during the planning and design process needed to meet the goals of reducing coastal storm damage while preserving the limestone and historic nature of Promontory Point,” Schroeder said.
The Point is one of two unfinished locations in the shoreline project, touted as a necessity to repair an eroding shoreline and first funded by Congress in 1996.
The other unfinished site is Morgan Shoal, where design work has been ongoing for about a decade — and where neighbors are similarly focused on preserving as much of the site’s existing character as possible.
The Promontory Point study was completed by McLaren Engineering Group, an engineering and surveying firm which used drones and diving engineers to assess the Point’s condition between May and July 2023.
The East Coast firm has worked on New Jersey’s Superstorm Sandy recovery effort and helped maintain the New York state canal system, among other coastal projects, according to the company’s website.
Activists raised about $200,000 — mainly in “small donations from people in the community [of] 50 bucks, 100 bucks, 500 bucks” — to cover much of the condition study’s cost, conservancy president Jack Spicer said.
McLaren is expected to release a second report in the coming months, which will explore design options for the Point project and estimate the costs of retaining, repairing, rehabilitating and maintaining the Point’s limestone, advocates said.
Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) — whose predecessor, Leslie Hairston, supported the Save the Point movement — joined Sen. Robert Peters, Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry and other local officials in announcing the study last week.
Transportation officials told Yancy late Wednesday they “have no intention of replacing the limestone with a continuous concrete revetment,” the alderperson said.
Schroeder confirmed Yancy’s statement. The agencies “are committed to saving and reusing as much of the Point’s existing limestone as possible,” she said.
A December 2023 task order request, issued by the transportation department and first obtained by the Hyde Park Herald, sought design proposals for a Point rehab. The request — which was issued to “pre-qualified” design firms, Schroeder said — outlines the scope of work expected from the project’s eventual contractor and makes no mention of concrete.
The design proposals must show how such a rehab would stabilize the Point against a “worst-case combination” of lake water levels and wave heights. This combination indicates storm conditions which one could expect to hit Chicago’s lakefront every 10 or 20 years, on average.
Activists sounded the alarm in February about the agencies’ intentions for the Point and the status of design contract negotiations. But “no planning or design work has started,” and the procurement process is ongoing, Schroeder said Thursday.
Conservancy members have repeatedly cited a 2020 application for federal grant funding at the Point — which included a reference to work completed at Diversey Harbor, where limestone barriers were removed — among the reasons for their concerns.
The grant application “is not relevant to what is currently being considered for Promontory Point,” Schroeder said.
“Nobody wants concrete,” Spicer told Block Club Thursday. “Until they show us for sure that they mean what they said in that statement that Yancy read, I’m holding my breath.”
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