USACE Proposes York Harbor Dredging

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District is putting forward a plan for maintenance dredging of the York Harbor Federal Navigation Project in York, Maine.

The proposed work involves maintenance dredging to remove shoals in the two 8-foot-deep anchorages and portions of the 10-foot-deep channel. The work will be accomplished over about a two-to-four month period.

Approximately 80 percent of the anchorages have shoaled in, to depths as shallow as -3 feet mean lower low water (MLLW). These shoals are the result of natural shoaling. The shoals are hindering navigational access and compromising vessel safety. The town of York has requested this project be maintained.

“The proposed work consists of maintenance dredging of about 42,000 cubic yards of primarily fine-grain sand, silt, and clay, with more coarse-grain sand and gravel from the channel, returning the Federal project to its authorized dimensions,” said Project Manager Jack Karalius, of the Corps’ New England District, Programs/Project Management Division in Concord, Mass.

If agreed upon, the work will be performed by a private contractor, using a mechanical dredge and scows, under contract to the government. The dredge will remove the material from the bottom of the harbor and place it in scows which will be towed by tug to the Cape Arundel Disposal Site, about 14 miles away, where the material will be released.

The last time the harbor was dredged was in 1996 when approximately 48,000 cubic yards of sediment were mechanically removed from the anchorages, and placed at the Cape Arundel Disposal Site.

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Source: USACE