Debra and I are back home from Indiana. Well, if you’ve been holding your breath about whether or not they’re still making limestone in Indiana, … breathe deep.  They are, and there’s lots of just what the Point needs.

We visited a number of quarries and our favorite was Reed Quarries Inc where Debby and Steve Reed offered us their time, knowledge and Hoosier hospitality for the large chunk of a day. Reed Quarries is a fourth-generation, family-owned business started in 1927. Of the 38 quarries that once thrived in southern Indiana, only six survive. Southern Indiana's limestone desposit stretches through three counties around Bloomington, is about 400 million years old and full of fossils, and is reputed to be the best limestone deposit in the world.

Steve drove us around the quarry and showed us hundreds and hundreds of what are called “breakwater blocks”. These blocks are roughly 2’ x 3-4’ x 6-8’ and match exactly the blocks comprising the Point's revetment. The best breakwater blocks come from the very top layer of the stone formation. These breakwater blocks, however, aren’t good for building material because they are too hard to cut and carve easily, and are not the desired "buff" color.  Only about 20% of what is cut out of the the Reed's quarry wall is the desired buff-colored stone used for buildings. The rest are waste blocks like the ones that make up the revetment at the Point. No one wants the gray or varigated colored stone or what's too hard to carve -- unless they want in-kind materials to repair and rehabilitate a 1930's WPA limestone sea wall. 

Turns out Debby Reed is a member of the Monroe County Historic Preservation Board of Review so she knew right away why our community has worked so long and hard to preserve our limestone revetment. Like us, she loves limestone and she cares about community.

Our coastal engineers McLaren Engineering Group tell us the vast majority of the blocks already at the Point (roughly 4,500) are intact and in great conditions, and we would only need a few dozen replacements for broken or badly eroded blocks. What we learned is that the breakwater blocks themselves aren’t expensive but the truck transport is. The price that Reed Quarries Inc. quoted us for a breakwater block plus transport brings the total cost just under $1,000/block -- far less expense than demolition and replacement with concrete per linear foot.

Best,

Jack Spicer
Left: Jack Spicer at Reed Quarries Inc.  Right: Steve and Debby Reed
Breakwater blocks awaiting use at Reed Quarries, Bloomington, Indiana.

We recently discovered --  again -- that repair, restoration and rehabilitation of Promontory Point continues to be cost-effective and cheaper than the City's "locally preferred plan".

As you may recall, the City's "locally preferred plan" entails demolition of the historic limestone revetment and new construction of concrete and steel. In 2013, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' cost estimate for the "locally preferred plan" was $57m. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of the "locally preferred plan" today is:

$75m 

In sharp contrast, preservation of the Point -- repair, restoration and rehabilitation per the Secretary of the Interior Standards for Historic Preservation -- continues to be cheaper than demolition and new construction. The 2002 Cyril Galvin preservation marine engineering report estimated the cost of repair, restoration and rehabilitation at $4.5m. Adjusted for inflation, that's currently $7.53m, 1/10th the cost of the "locally preferred plan". Given the storm damage erosion at the Point since 2002 and after conversation with four marine engineering firms with preservation experience, we estimate the cost of preservation construction and maintenance at 1/5 - 1/2 the cost of the "locally preferred plan" at:
 
$17-29m 

Right now, the City is pushing a deception Point: demolition of the limestone revetment, new construction of a concrete revetment with limestone blocks on top as decorative and ornamental. Astronomical to build and to maintain, it is an over-engineered solution for $100m when repair, restoration and rehabilitation of the existing limestone revetment is feasible and multiple times cheaper. This is not a preservation-based approach and violates the Secretary of the Interior Standards for Historic Preservation. We don't need a new concrete revetment. We need the existing limestone revetment -- which still functions at 85 years -- fixed. 

But even if preservation costs as much as the "locally preferred plan" which it doesn't, Promontory Point would be worth it and park equity on the South Side would be served.