Lake Erie Erosion Re-routes the Trail
This winter several portions of the bluff system between Clarke Road and Elgin Cty Rd 55 significantly deteriorated and eroded towards Lakeshore Line, which was part of Bayham’s Waterfront Trail.
Public safety concerns prompted Bayham Council to permanently close the section of the Lakeshore Line, which is just east of Burwell.
The Trail will be re-routed to Glen Erie Line and Clarke Rd, a gravel road.
According to the Eglin County Shoreline Management Plan (2015), some of the fastest erosion rates occur along the Elgin’s part of the Lake Erie shoreline – in some places as much as 4 metres per year.
This is not the first section of Lakeshore Line to be closed due to erosion. Back in 2013, a storm wiped out a section of the road between Cty Rd 55 and Stafford Rd just a few months before the Lake Erie expansion of the Waterfront Trail was to be launched. About 3.5 km of the Trail was rerouted onto Glen Erie, accounting for the nudge north in the Trail’s alignment–that nudge that has grown by 850 metres with this closure.
Click to read the Municipality’s Lakeshore Line Erosion Response Strategy