Coos Bay Dredging Project About to Begin

A maintenance dredging scheme will be conducted from the Coos Bay River Mile 12 to 15 in the following weeks, the Port of Coos Bay reported on June 14. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released an Invitation to Bid for the Coos Bay Upriver Clamshell Maintenance Dredging project earlier this year and has contracted with American Construction Co., Inc. to complete the project.

Under the agreement, approximately 930,000 m³ of material will be dredged between River Mile (RM) 12 to 15. USACE is limited to removing up to 1 million m³ of material in a given dredge season.

American Construction will start dredging operations on July 1 with the clamshell dredge Patriot.

Work will be continuous 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, and the contract completion date is set for October 31, 2019.

$34 million for Oregon Ports

On November 21, 2018, Representative Peter DeFazio announced more than $34 million in additional funding was allocated to Oregon Ports by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

About $9.7 million was allocated to the Coos Bay to cover projects, including dredging River Mile (RM) 12 to 15 of the Coos Bay River.

This section spans from the Oregon Chip terminal to the Georgia Pacific Sawmill site and has not been maintained since 2010.

According to the Port of Coos Bay’s official announcement, this stretch of the channel needs to be dredged to restore deep draft vessel access to existing and future industries in the upper bay.