The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, today presented a couple of photos of the Morehead City dredging operations.
The standby dredge vessel McFarland, owned and operated by the Army Corps Philadelphia District, is putting finishing touches to the works.
According to USACE, the McFarland is nearly finished with its project in the Morehead City shipping channel. The 300-feet vessel with unlimited tonnage is removing shoals to make the channel safe for commercial and private marine vessels.
The shipping channel is a federal navigation project located in the Town of Morehead City, North Carolina, approximately 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean through Beaufort Inlet.
In 2017, the Corps released bathymetric survey data according to which the navigable depth has been significantly reduced from -45 feet mean lower low water (MLLW) to areas as shallow as -7.0 feet MLLW within the authorized navigation channel.
The purpose of the Morehead City shipping channel project is to address maintenance dredging challenges at Beaufort Inlet, which will improve the navigability and safety for commercial vessels calling on the Port of Morehead City.