DREDGING ROUNDUP North America
Cashman Begins St. Lucie Inlet Project
Maintenance dredging of the St. Lucie Florida Inlet was set to begin in early November and continue through the end of February 2014. The Jacksonville Engineer District awarded the St. Lucie dredging contract to Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting. The contract calls for up to 200000 cubic yards of sand to be dredged and taken to beaches near the inlet.
Martin County has funded an additional amount of up to 250000 cubic yards of sand to be dredged during this project.
The dredged sand will be transported by tug and barge through St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park and offloaded at Peck Lake. From there it will be pumped through a pipeline to beaches in Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. The pumping must take place between November 1 and March 1 for environmental reasons.
The federal manmade St. Lucie Inlet is Martin County’s only point ofaccess to the Atlantic Ocean. It separates the barrier islands of Hutchinson Island to the north and Jupiter Island to the south. The inlet connects the Atlantic Ocean to several waterways including the Indian River La- goon the St. Lucie River the Hobe Sound Narrows and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Corps Awards College Contract
The Detroit Engineer District announced September 24 that it had awarded a $1.4 million contract to Great Lakes Dock & Materials LLC of Muskegon Michigan for a construction and dredging project at North- western Michigan College.
In addition to dredging the harbor to a depth of 16 feet the contract includes demolishing part of an older harbor made of timber and concrete. It will be replaced with a 250-foot-long 22-foot-wide pier. Northwestern Michigan College trains students for the merchant marine at its Great Lakes Maritime Academy.
Dean Marine Picked for Rogers City
The Rogers City Michigan Council on October 28 selected Dean Ma- rine & Excavating of Mt. Clemens for a $168289.20 contract to dredge the municipal marina’s channel.
Once the dredging is finished the marina should have 10 feet of depth through the entrance to the fuel docks and launch ramp and down the channel along the outside wall Harbormaster Roger Wenzel told local media. Wenzel hopes the added depth will attract more sailors in the 2014 boating season since preliminary numbers showed the city’s marina had 380 boats last year slightly down from more than 400.
Rogers City’s marina is one of 49 throughout Michigan to receive a slice of $20.94 million the state set aside for emergency dredging. Rogers City was approved for up to $227500 with no local match required but the marina must be dredged by December 31 or the grant expires.
Corps Dredging Kennebunk River
The New England Engineer District planned to dredge Maine’s
Kennebunk River which the Corps said in a news release has become dangerous to fishing vessels.
The Corps filed for a permit in October from Maine’s Department of Conservation that would allow dredging of shoals in the federally autho- rized eight-foot channel. A hydrographic survey released by the Corps showed that the channel has shoaled across its width in places to a depth of minus 5.5 feet.
The project will take place between November and March 31 and should cost about a half million dollars Corps project manager Jack Kara- lius told local media. The area to be dredged is 1545 feet long and 325 feet wide and the work proposal estimates that about 22000 cubic yards of fine clean sand will be removed.
The Corps will use its own hopper dredge either the Currituck or Mur– den or another similar type dredge the Corps said.
The Currituck last dredged the Kennebunk channel in 2004.
Oregon Pays to Dredge Ports
The state of Oregon has agreed to provide up to $5 million to the Corps of Engineers for dredging of small coastal ports after federal funds dried up after the end of earmarks. The agreement between the state and the Corps was announced in mid-September. The Oregon legislature provided $3 million with the Oregon Business Development Department coming up with the other $2 million.
The Corps dredge Yaquina began dredging federal channels in the port of Siuslaw to be followed by the ports of Umpqua and Port Orford.
Since the Yaquina is too big to work around state-owned marinas the state planned to bring in a portable truck-mounted dredge for that work state Sen. Jeff Kruse told local media.
Hickey Gets Kalama Contract
The Port of Kalama Washington Commission voted in the second week of October to award a contract to Hickey Marine Enterprises of Vancouver Washington for $857367 for routine maintenance dredging along the dock front. From November through December Hickey will remove material in front of the port’s TEMCO grain terminal.
