Spring Lake residents say homes were damaged from dock construction vibrations

SPRING LAKE, MI – Residents in the Village of Spring Lake say vibrations from drilling at a dock construction project shook and damaged their homes.

The Jackson Street Dock Reconstruction in the village is ongoing.

Contractor Tiles Excavating has already removed the old seawall and storm drainage structure. They are now installing the new seawall.

“The construction caused my home and many others’ in the area to shake for several consecutive days,” said Melissa Lundeberg, a resident on N. Jackson Street, during an April 21 village council meeting. “Many homes in the area experienced physical damage, including new cracks and chipping.”

Lundeberg, who described her home as 100-years-old and built on sand, said the vibrations lasted a week while drilling took place during the daytime hours.

“It was hard at some points to even stand in our homes, the vibrations were that strong,” Lundeberg said.

She added that there are resident concerns about underlying structural damage that may not be immediately visible.

“I had wine bottles projecting out of wine racks, things falling off the wall, cracks in the wall,” said Julie Daudelin, resident on Barber Street.

Village Manager Brady Selner said residents were notified of the drilling in advance, although the residents on Monday night said they never got a notice.

Selner also said the village hired a subcontractor, Soils & Structures, to ensure the vibration levels would remain at a safe level near residences. He said this is not the first time he has heard similar complaints from residents.

“What our village engineer communicated to me was that during that entire period Soils & Structures was monitoring, there was never any event that they went over the limits that they would have needed to go over to have structural damage,” Selner said.

He said that the village had external photos taken of the nearby properties before construction began.

The village council plans to have the engineer and possibly the contractors present to them at a future meeting, in hopes of offering more clarity to residents.

“They are certainly the experts that can talk in a much more educated way about that,” Selner said.

Lundeberg said she and other residents want to see proof that the village had all necessary permits before they did any type of drilling in the area.

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