DREDGING ROUNDUP NORTH AMERICA – July/August 2014

Brigantine Dredging Contract Awarded

The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) awarded contracts to two contractors in July for dredging in the Waackaack Creek and Thorns Creek Channels in Keansburg Monmouth County and St. Georges Thorofare in Brigantine New Jersey.

The $603000 New Jersey state-funded St. Georges Thorofare project will remove about 40500 cubic yards of sediment for beach replenishment. Contractor Mobile Dredging & Pumping Company is expected to begin work after Labor Day.

The $1.2 million state-funded Waackaack and Thorns Creeks Channels navigation maintenance project in Keansburg will remove approximately 31500 cubic yards of sediment. NJDOT’s contractor Tri-State Dredging Inc. is expected to begin work this summer on an adjacent Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) with dredging anticipated to start shortly thereafter.

The state said it would not normally dredge in the summer but must maintain an aggressive schedule to maximize efforts during favorable dredging conditions. Efforts will be made to ensure that work does not interfere with navigation.

The contract is part of the multi-year State Channel Dredging Program designed to return New Jersey’s waterways to a state of good repair.

Luedtke Gets Burns Harbor Contract

The Corps of Engineers Chicago Engineer District awarded a $1.69 million contract to Luedtke Engineering Company on June 30 for maintenance dredging of Burns Harbor in Portage Indiana.

The firm-fixed-price construction contract is for mechanical dredging and disposal of 165000 cubic yards at the Burns waterway. The dredged materials from the outer harbor and approach channel will be placed in Ogden Dunes; the material from the east and west arms will be placed in deep water.

Burns Harbor handles more ocean-going cargo than any other Great Lakes port including 15 percent of U.S. steel trade with Europe.

Ogdensburg New York Gets $200K Dredging Grant

New York State Senator Patricia A. Ritchie (R-Heuvelton) announced on July 3 that her office has secured $200000 as part of a special state grant to fund a dredging project at the Port of Ogdensburg in New York.

Ultimately the project will decrease drop-off times for cargo Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority (OBPA) Executive Director Wade A. Davis said. Because of a buildup of silt along the city port’s 1200-foot dock freighters have to deliver their cargo piecemeal Davis said.

The city’s port was last dredged in 1984 and the rising river bottom from accumulated silt endangers the OBPA’s recently expanded efforts to attract new business and create more local jobs. According to a previous Corps of Engineers report shippers stand to see an $89000 to $302000 hike in transportation costs because decreasing channel depth would force ships to carry lighter loads.

“It makes the port much more competitive as a result for bulk commodities – whether it is for agriculture or salt for municipalities” Davis said.

In 2013 the Corps of Engineers and OBPA signed a cost-sharing agreement for a study examining the feasibility of the dredging project. The Corps of Engineers is expected to make its recommendations soon and it is expected that the bulk of the dredging costs will be covered by the Corps.

Rockaway Restoration Charging Ahead

Weeks Marine of Cransford New Jersey continues beach restoration work on the Rockaways Peninsula in New York. Sand placement for the latest contract began in April 2014 and will continue over the summer with expected completion this fall.

Few places were hit harder by Hurricane Sandy than the Rockaways in Queens New York a narrow densely populated peninsula off Long Island. More than 100 homes were destroyed by fire and the coastline was severely eroded.

The Corps of Engineers New York District in conjunction with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is continuing work on a $36.5 million coastline restoration project at Rockaway Beach placing nearly 3.5 million cubic yards of sand.

Sand fill is creating a new wide berm to absorb impact from high tides and waves during major storms. NYC Parks and Recreation and the NYC Economic Development Corporation are adding funds for the Corps of Engineers to increase the height of the berm. Parks and Recreation will also plant beach grass to help hold sand in place.

The project area stretches nearly six miles. Sand placement for the latest contract began in April 2014 and will continue over the summer with expected completion this fall.

The first contract completed in the fall of 2013 placed nearly 500000 cubic yards of sand where erosion was most severe (that area will also receive additional sand from the ongoing project).

Weeks Marine is pumping sand from an offshore borrow area. In addition the Corps is now conducting a re-evaluation study to examine potential longer-term solutions to mitigate erosion and flooding along the entire peninsula as well as Jamaica Bay.

The work is fully funded through the Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies Act (PL 84-99) authorizing the Corps of Engineers to restore previously constructed projects after a major storm like Sandy to pre-storm conditions and the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (PL113-2) permitting the Corps to restore projects to their original design. This allows for the placement of significantly more sand resulting in a wider beach that in some areas hasn’t been seen for decades.

The work at Rockaways Beach is part of an initiative restoring coastal-storm risk reduction projects throughout the Northeast impacted by Sandy. In all 27 million cubic yards of sand will be placed eight million of that for projects in New York State including Coney Island and the south shore of Long Island.

Great Lakes To Dredge Delaware River

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation announced on July 2 that it was awarded two dredging contracts with a combined value of $39.6 million to deepen the main channel of the Delaware River in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Great Lakes will use a combination of hopper and clamshell dredges to remove more than one million cubic yards of material to deepen a section of the river from 40 feet to 45 feet. Great Lakes deepened a different section of the Delaware River two years ago. Dredging on the new section is expected to begin this summer.

Shrewsbury River Dredging Announced

H&L Contracting LLC won a $1.79 million contract from the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Shrewsbury River which runs through Monmouth County New Jersey according to a June 25 press release from Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ).

The project will remove 60000 cubic yards of sand in order to keep the Shrewsbury River channel navigable. H&L Contracting will place the dredged sand onto the oceanside beach in the Borough of Monmouth Beach.

Pallone also announced that Monmouth Beach New Jersey will receive $1.78 million in federal funds provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resilience Grant Program on behalf of the Department of the Interior to create 6400 feet of coastal dunes in the area.

This allocation to Monmouth Beach is a portion of more than $102.7 million in federal grants for areas at risk from future storms. The town will use the material dredged from the Shrewsbury River project to create the dunes in Monmouth Beach.

Sand removal from the Shrewsbury River could begin as early as September 2014. The sand will be pumped onto the beach with a small hydraulic dredge and discharge pipeline that will cross under Route 36 and over the existing seawall to the shoreline.

Guildford Harbor Dredging Announced

The Corps of Engineers New England District announced on July 1 plans to dredge the Federal navigation channel in Guilford Harbor Connecticut.

The Corps proposes to dredge about 53000 cubic of sandy and fine-grained material from the channel to return the project to its authorized dimensions.

The areas that need dredging include the outer entrance channel the portion of the channel located in Sluice Creek and the anchorage basin. A minimum of two to three months will be required to dredge these channel areas. Dredging is scheduled to take place sometime between October 1 and January 31 2015.

A mechanical dredge with a clamshell bucket will be used. Since limited upland placement areas are available the dredged material will be loaded onto a barge and towed to the Central Long Island Sound open water management site 17 miles away where the material will be discharged for final placement. An average of approximately 400000 cubic yards of suitable sediments have been deposited at this site annually.

Great Lakes To Replenish North Carolina Beach

The Corps of Engineers Wilmington District awarded a $19.9 million contract to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation to provide dredging services to protect Highway 12 the only northsouth highway along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. This coastal protection project involves placing approximately 1.7 million cubic yards of beach fill material immediately north of the Mirlo Beach community in Rodanthe North Carolina which suffered severe beach erosion dune loss and damage as a result of Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Great Lakes’ cutter suction dredge Illinois will undertake the work. Great Lakes has already completed four major Sandy coastal protection projects within the past 12 months.

Corps Withdraws Palm Beach Harbor Permit

The Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District withdrew the Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit application on June 17 for the authorized deepening and widening project of the Lake Worth Inlet and Palm Beach Harbor.

This project was authorized for construction by the Water Resource Reform and Development Act of 2014. The Corps is withdrawing the permit application until additional appropriations are received to begin the Preconstruction Engineering and Design (PED) phase.

The PED phase involves transforming the authorized project from the feasibility study into detailed plans and specification for contractual procurement in what is estimated to be a twoyear process.

The permit application had also included an extension of the ongoing maintenance dredging with reuse of the beach quality sand on the downdrift beaches.The Corps is considering continued maintenance dredging beyond March of 2015 when the current permit expires.

Obtaining water quality certification for construction of the deepening and widening project and associated mitigation has now been pushed off until the PED phase which the Corps said is slated for the 2016-2017 timeframe.

Red River Dredging Permit Applied For

Port City Dredging LLC applied on July 2 for a Corps of Engineers permit for the mechanized land clearing and discharge of dredged material in about 0.3 acre of jurisdictional wetlands for the purpose of dredging the Red River to supply sediment to a concrete production facility.

Using a 10-inch hydraulic cutterhead dredge with a 10-inch x 12-inch flange adapter Port City Dredging would remove sand from the designated areas along the river via a 12-inch highdensity polyethylene pipeline that would range in length from 600 to 1200 feet.

The dredge would face north and discharge from the south. The pipeline would be on floats 100 feet from the flange adapter and would be submerged for the remaining section of the river.

The northwest corner of the fill area would be the first area filled. Pipeline would be added as sand fills in across the site until the northeast corner is filled.

Upon filling the dredge would be moved downriver and the process continued. About 100000 cubic yards of sediment would be dredged each year for five years. The project is located within the Red River drainage basin Bossier Parish Louisiana.