After lots of talk in the past year about starting major dredging projects in the Morgan City area, it is expected that the work will finally be in full swing by the summer, the Louisiana’s Port of Morgan City said in a release.
The port officials plan to achieve a decent enough water depth by September to accommodate a lot of vessel traffic from Crewboat Cut, south of Morgan City, in the Atchafalaya River to the end of the Atchafalaya River Bar Channel, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Sediment accumulation has stifled waterway commerce in the Morgan City area, because many vessels cannot get through the waterways.
The river and bar channel are authorized to be 20 feet deep and 400 feet wide, but the river is rarely consistently at those dimensions. Officials expect the river to be dredged to 18 feet in the Morgan City area by September.
According to the release, Brice Civil Constructors has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use a special purpose suction dredger to remove fluid mud, known as fluff, from the Atchafalaya River Bar Channel.
The contractor is set to arrive on site as early as May 1 and as late as June 1, said Tim Connell, operations manager for the USACE New Orleans district.