My motivations for this project stem from future career interests in structural design. Harbors are usually the industrial, economic and social centers of a coastal community. As far as coastal structures go, breakwater systems play a vital role in protecting harbors and slowing shoreline erosion. After reviewing the previous class projects, I though about further investigating the Milwaukee Harbor breakwater improvement project, but not much has happened since the previous report was written in 2001. So, I decided to travel down Lake Michigan's shoreline to Chicago where breakwater improvement have become an area of recent concern.