USACE Galveston District awards $6.3 million contract to dredge GIWW

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District
Story by Sandra Arnold

Date: 04.11.2014
Posted: 04.11.2014 16:42
News ID: 125614

GALVESTON, Texas – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a contract in the amount of $6,318,000 to Goodloe Marine Inc., a women-owned, HubZone Small Business, to perform maintenance dredging within the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, between Turnstake Island and Live Oak Point, in Calhoun, Aransas and San Patricio counties, Texas.

The contractor is required to remove approximately 1.6 million cubic yards of shoaled material from the channel reaches to provide sufficient channel depth for the transit of shallow-draft vessels. The dredge material will be placed in open water and upland placement areas directly adjacent to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

“Execution of this maintenance dredging contract is critical to providing unrestricted navigation along this portion of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway,” said Chris Frabotta, chief of Navigation Branch, USACE Galveston District. “The movement of commerce, through barge traffic, is an essential link between the Texas ports, Gulf regional ports and various facilities throughout the nation.”

Work is scheduled to begin in late April 2014 with an estimated completion in September 2014.

According to Frabotta, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway extends for 1,109 miles from Apalachee Bay, Florida, to Port Isabel Texas, and is ranked as the third inland waterway in the nation with respect to commercial tonnage. The Texas portion of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway extends for 406-miles and accounts for approximately 63 percent of the total commercial tonnage, roughly 73 million tons in 2012.

“The USACE Galveston District is tasked with maintaining the Texas portion of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to ensure this important component of the Texas and U.S. maritime system remains open for commerce,” said Frabotta. “Working with our partners – the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas ports and various organizations such as the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association – the Galveston District is able to maintain the channel deep and wide enough to meet current shipping demands, which is key to the economic competitiveness of Texas ports.”

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.

Learn more about the Texas coast at http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/TexasCoastValuetotheNation.aspx. For 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.