Indiana Harbor and Canal CDF project continues

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District has just announced that the Indiana Harbor and Canal (IHC) confined disposal facility (CDF) Phase 2 dike raise construction began last month.

The Corps awarded the CDF Phase 2 contract to Integrated Environmental Solutions, Inc. in September 2020. to raise the dike up to 11 feet.

USACE expects that Phase 2 of the IHC project will be completed by 2023.

Once completed, the CDF will have a total capacity of 4.8 million cubic yards (CY), and will allow maintenance dredging for approximately 20 to 30 more years before closure.

The elements of the CDF include construction of dikes; a hydraulic gradient control system which includes monitoring and extraction wells and a subsurface cutoff wall; an on-site effluent treatment plant; a dredged material re-handling area; and air monitoring.

Dredging operations at IHC were completed by Joint Venture (Kokosing and O’Brien & Gere) in November 2020 for the current contract, and for Phase 1 of the CDF. The Corps has removed a total of 1,705,186 CY of sediment (including federal and nonfederal) from the IHC. Dredging will resume in 2024.