Scarborough River dredge project almost complete

Michels Construction Inc. continues to make steady progress with the dredging of Scarborough River in Maine.

According to Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall, the contractor has so far removed over 140,000 cubic yard of sand from the Scarborough River and will soon finish up work in the main navigational channel.

If all goes according to plans, Michels will complete the Scarborough River dredge project by mid-March 2024.

The Scarborough River Federal Navigation Project (FNP) involves maintenance dredging and removal of more than 130,000 cy of primarily sandy sediment from the entire Scarborough River FNP, an area of about 22 acres.

The work is being conducted in two phases. First phase includes removing materials from the Entrance Channel over an area of about 10.8 acres to return the Entrance Channel to the authorized depth of 8 feet below MLLW.

The second phase will dredge the remaining shoal areas over an area of about 11.2 acres returning the Main Channel and Anchorage to their authorized depth of 6 feet below Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW).

The purpose of the maintenance dredging project is to meet navigational needs of existing commercial fishing and recreational vessel traffic by maintaining the FNP to authorized dimensions.