Plymouth Harbor Dredging Enters Phase Two

Phase two of dredging to remove shoaling from the Plymouth Harbor federal navigation project in Massachusetts started the first week of October and is on schedule to be finished by the end of November, in time for the town of Plymouth’s 400-year anniversary celebration.

Plymouth Harbor is in Plymouth Bay about 18 miles north of the Cape Cod Canal. It is partially protected by Long Beach, a 3.6 mile-long spit that extends along the harbor’s east side, giving Plymouth Harbor a V-shaped form. Natural shoaling in this area reduced available depths to as little as 7 feet in the 18-foot main channel, 7 feet in the 5-foot channel and 4 feet in the 8-foot anchorage.

The New England District partially dredged the navigation project in 1988, but the last full dredge took place in 1967.

Approximately 385,000 cubic yards of material is being dredged from about 75 acres of authorized project area. Approximately 41,000 cubic yards is fine sand and is being used for a feeder berm in the nearshore of Green Harbor Beach. The rest of the material is slated for open water disposal at the Cape Cod Bay Disposal site and the Massachusetts Bay Disposal site.

The New England District and its contractor, Burnham Associates of Salem, Massachusetts, began work in October 2018. Burnham Associates successfully bid for the $9.3 million project and hired Cashman Dredging of Quincy, Massachusetts, and AGM Marine Contractors Inc. of Mashpee, Massachusetts as subcontractors. The town of Plymouth is the local sponsor.

The two-year dredging project to remove shoaling from the Plymouth Harbor federal navigation project should wrap up in late November.