Virtual meeting on Indiana Harbor dredging

An Indiana Harbor and Canal pre-dredge virtual public meeting will be held on June 17, 2020, at 6 p.m. to discuss the start of Indiana Harbor dredging this year, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chicago District in their latest release.

According to USACE, dredging will resume at Indiana Harbor in July and will continue through fall 2020, a continuation of the dredging that stopped in 2019 for the winter season.

The contractors, a joint venture with Kokosing Construction Company, Ohio and O’Brien and Gere, Illinois, will dredge approximately 150,000 to 200,000 cubic yards in 2020.

By next year, the entire federal channel will be dredged to congressionally-authorized navigation depths, including the removal of sediments in adjacent berthing and docking areas at a nonfederal expense.

The navigation project consists of a harbor channel ranging in depth from 27 to 29 feet low water datum, and two canals with depths of 22 feet. The project includes the operation and maintenance of the East Chicago, Ind., confined disposal facility.

Since 2012, over 1.58 million cubic yards of sediment has been removed from the waterway which improves efficiency of deep draft commercial navigation and reduce the contaminants that had previously been washing into Lake Michigan.