GALVESTON, Texas – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, awarded a contract in the amount of $3,600,200 to Mike Hooks Inc. for maintenance dredging of the Freeport inside channel and turning basins in Brazoria County, Texas.
The contractor is required to remove approximately 538,000 cubic yards of shoaled material from the channel using a pipeline dredge with dredged material placement in an adjacent upland disposal area.
“This dredge work will remove draft restrictions that would otherwise prevent deep draft ships from accessing one of the nation’s top petrochemical complexes, providing unrestricted navigation to the strategically important port,” said John Machol, an operations manager with USACE Galveston District. “Port Freeport is ranked 30th in the nation in gross tonnage and 16th in the nation for importing foreign cargo.”
According to Machol, work is scheduled to begin May 29, 2013, with an estimated completion date of November 2013.
The Freeport Harbor deep draft navigation project consists of an approximately 8.5-mile-long, 45-feet-deep by 400-feet-wide channel, extending from the Gulf of Mexico through a jettied inlet to a turning basin at the Freeport port facilities.
The project also includes two rock jetties.
The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.
To learn more about dredging along the Texas coast, view our four-minute video, http://bit.ly/KLZQBM. For more news and information, visit www.swg.usace.army.mil. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.