Page 33: of Marine News Magazine (November 2020)

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Dredging *Photo on page 32 provided by the Big River Coalition as captured by P.J. Hahn of Pelican Coast Consulting

By Sean Duffy (FY) 2019 and 2020 – both record moved. This rundown includes the pandemic fades, the world will notice amounts, with FY 2020 establishing Phase 1 of the ship channel deepening the improvements made to help Fix the new record of over $246 million. (18.5 mcy), FY 2021 channel main- Southwest Pass, and the channel main-

However, if we have a low river stage tenance in Southwest Pass (estimated tenance will also be used bene? cially year there is no guarantee that such 18.5 mcy), existing contract for the to restore wetlands in the environmen- funds would ? ow, and the off years Hopper Dredge Disposal Area (14 tally sensitive birds-foot delta. In 10 with a dedicated budget would allow mcy), dredging of South Pass for the years the USACE restored over 10,600 other channel features to be done. ? rst time since 2007 (10.5 mcy) and acres (almost 17 square miles) of new

Many of those features help reduce Tiger Pass being dredged for the ? rst marsh or wetlands in the delta. Based dredging in high river years. time since 2012 (1.9 mcy). on the current contracts I believe that

The increased appropriations al- The present timeline suggests that total will eclipse 15,000 acres over the lowed the USACE to fund their cost- the ? rst phase of the deepening to 50 next two years with up to 4,000 acres share for the ship channel deepening feet will be completed by the end of to be added by the work presently un- and make other adjustments outlined 2021. This will open up the ? rst 175 der contract as highlighted above. by the Full Funding Floats All Boats miles of the ship channel to the deeper Clearly, the calls to Fix Southwest campaign – mainly the ability to is- draft (50 feet), and channel mainte- Pass have placed a lot of focus on sue dredge contracts before shoaling nance in FY 2021 will be off to a good our advocacy efforts. However, wa- begins. For the ? rst time ever, the US- start with the three hoppers under con- terways management is a team sport,

ACE has three hopper dredges under tract and the regional hopper contract and many will share in the rewards of contract in early 2021, and in FY 2020 to add the bene? t of another hopper increased channel maintenance and the ? rst Gulf Coast Regional Hopper dredge to increase channel mainte- maritime commerce that can help

Dredge Contract 2020 was awarded nance. Hopefully, as the impact of the drive our economic recovery. and allowed the industry hopper dredge Newport to work on shoaling between the USACE New Orleans and Mobile Districts. The Regional

Hopper Dredge Contract in FY 2021 will provide another hopper dredge for channel maintenance next year.

Dredge contractors in response to the increased appropriations and mar- ket indicators have also responded by ? nancing large capital improvements for new equipment, by documenting that three new large hopper dredges are being constructed in U.S. shipyards.

There are also several new cutterhead dredges being built, and it is expected that there will be work for all of them.

A quick rundown of dredge con- tracts along the ship channel includ- ing the deltaic passes shows a tremen- dous amount of work to be completed over the next two years, with totals of work approaching 65 million cu- bic yards (mcy) of material to be re- 33 www.marinelink.com MN