Petersen Companies Awarded Stamp Sands Dredging Contract

Petersen Companies Inc., of Minocqua, Wisconsin has been awarded the $2,779,257 contract to dredge the stamp sands in the Keweenaw Peninsula between Gay and Grand Traverse Harbor, Michigan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District awarded the contract and is working in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Keeweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on the stamp sands project. The goal is to prevent the stamp sands from encroaching on the 2,200-acre Buffalo Reef in Lake Superior, which is home to juvenile whitefish. Approximately 27,500 cubic yards of stamp sands will be dredged from Grand Traverse Harbor and 80,000 cubic yards of stamp sands will be removed from the ancient riverbed area north of Buffalo Reef know as “the trough.” Dredging is a short-term solution that will give the team time to develop a long-term solution to prevent the littoral drift present in the peninsula from pushing stamp sands to the reef. (For more information on this project, click here).