District awards $15.6 million dredging contract for Houston navigation channels

TX, UNITED STATES

08.22.2016

Story by Breeana Moore 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District

GALVESTON, Texas (Aug. 22, 2016) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a contract to Weeks Marine Inc., in the amount of $15,692,500 for the maintenance dredging of the Houston Ship Channel, Redfish Reef to Morgan’s Point.

Contractors will remove approximately 2.3 million cubic yards of shoal material from the channels using a hydraulic pipeline dredge to ensure waterways remain open for navigation.

“Dredging allows the Corps to fulfill its mission of providing safe and navigable waterways for vessels importing and exporting goods to and from the Port of Houston and industries along the channel,” said Tricia Campbell, an operations manager with the USACE Galveston District. “The Port of Houston ranks first in the nation in foreign waterborne tonnage; first in U.S. imports and second in the nation with respect to total tonnage.”

Campbell stated the contractor will begin dredge work in areas where high shoaling has occurred and place material from the project in the Mid-Bay Dredged Material Placement Area. The project is one hundred percent federally funded with work scheduled to begin in September 2016.

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 270 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

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.

• Date Taken: 08.22.2016
• Date Posted: 08.22.2016 14:31
• Story ID: 207873
• Location: TX, US