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Seacoast Marine Construction of Long Island, New York, recently won a $39.9 million USACE contract for restoration work at Barren Island, part of the Mid-Chesapeake Bay Island Ecosystem Restoration project in Dorchester County, Maryland.
The contract award ushers in the second phase of Mid-Bay restoration work on Barren Island including construction of two bird islands adjacent to the existing island and connected to the breakwater; construction of stone sill structures; design and installation of spillway structures; and excavation of material from the Honga & Tar Bay federal navigation channels and placement within a contained area adjacent to Barren Island.
Approximately 335,000 cubic yards of material consisting of mud, sand, silt, shell and combinations thereof will be removed via hydraulic dredge from the Honga River channel to its authorized depth of seven feet and a width ranging from 60-140 feet.
The Mid-Bay project, in partnership with MDOT MPA, includes restoration of 2,072 acres of lost remote island habitat on James Island and 72 acres of remote island habitat on Barren Island, using material dredged from the Port of Baltimore approach channels and shallow draft federal navigation channels, respectively.
Barren Island is anticipated to begin acceptance of Honga River dredged material in late 2025 or early 2026, with James Island accepting dredged material around 2030, after sill and dike construction efforts to hold the material are completed at each location. The Honga River channel was last dredged by USACE in 2009.
USACE received more than $80 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2022 to complete the design and preconstruction activities for the Barren Island component of this project, to include the first construction contract award. The Mid-Bay project is anticipated to be completed in 2067 – providing more than 30 years of capacity to place nearly 95 million cubic yards of dredged material.
Poplar Island, the ongoing ecosystem restoration project by USACE and MDOT MPA, wrapped up construction of an expansion effort in January 2021 that provides substantial ecosystem benefits and additional dredge material capacity for the approach channels to the Port of Baltimore until 2032.