Cashman Continues Work on St. Lucie Inlet
Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. LLC backhoe dredge Capt. AJ Fournier continues work in the federal channel and adjacent basin at St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County Florida following the impact of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The dredge is equipped with a Liebherr 994 excavator.
The Jacksonville District awarded the $6465000 contract in July 2013. Operations began in mid-November and continue 24 hours per day with a mid-February 2014 anticipated completion date.
The project is 100 percent federally funded under the Flood Control and Coastal Emergency (FCCE) program.
Corps Project Manager Shelley Trulock said “This dredging event is a great opportunity to dredge a low use inlet/federal channel since these types of inlets typically do not compete well with the large inlets/ports of Florida for hard to come by federal operation and maintenance funding.”
Under the authority of PL 84-99 Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FCCE) the Corps can authorize emergency management measures including disaster preparedness; emergency operations; rehabilitation of flood control works threatened or destroyed by flood; protection or repair of federally authorized shore protective works threatened or damaged by coastal storm; and provision of emergency water due to drought or contaminated source.
In St. Lucie Inlet Cashman is dredging 200000 cubic yards of sand from the inlet and adjacent settling basin barging the beach quality sand via the Intracoastal Waterway and then placing it on the beach at the Hobe Sound National Preserve.
The Jacksonville District has relocated millions of cubic yards of sand from Florida ports inlets and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways as part of the FCCE program.
In September 2013 Col. Alan Dodd district engineer Jacksonville District gave a presentation to the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation about FCCE and its applications to the work done in Florida. Dodd noted that Florida’s coastal restoration program for 2013 was not what it anticipated. In planning the Corps had one beach project and one navigation program for a total of 500000 cubic yards of removal when in reality after Superstorm Sandy the Corps authorized 16 beach projects in 2013 and 10 navigation projects for a total of eight million cubic yards.
