Millions Of CARES Act Funding To Cover Duluth’s Aging Seawall Reconstruction

DULUTH, Minn. — The city of Duluth has secured federal CARES Act funding to begin construction on the seawall later this year.

For the $8 million project, $5 million from the federal CARES Act will go toward replacing the aging seawall.

The rest of the money will mostly be covered from the capital support that Minnesota sent Duluth in 2020.

The reconstruction will take more than a year and will happen as Duluth welcomes in seven cruises this year.

Eventually the seawall will help cruise ships be able to anchor down close by.

” I think that our elected leaders realized that you only renew your seawalls about every 50 to 60 years,” Jim Filby Williams, the director of the Department of Public Administration for the city, explained. “So it’s a unique once in a life time opportunity to reimagine what it could be, and we’re very fortunate, I think, that our community and our leaders, you know really stepped back and imagined big and bold.”

Meanwhile in a separate project, Harbor Drive behind the DECC will transform into a green space that can no longer be driven through.

The seawall and the Harbor Drive projects will both begin this summer, possibly in June.

The federal government awarded the pandemic-related cares act funding to Duluth because of the way the tourism industry suffered due to COVID.